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REFLECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 



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PBESENT STATE OF PARTIES. 



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BY AN OLD CLAY WHIG. 




NASHVILLE: 

PRINTED BY G. C. TORBETT AND COMPANY. 
185G. 



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COREESPONDENCE. 



NASHVILLE, Mat 13 1856. 
Gentlfmen : The unders'gned have read with great pleasure the series 
of articles recently published in the Union and American, under the title 
of " Reflections and Suggestions upon the Present State of Parties." 
These articles, by ihe terse and vigorous style of their composition, and 
the able, dignified, and candid manner in which 1h? author han files the sub- 
ject, have excited a very deep interest wherever they have been read. Bu f , 
to the undersigned, their perusal has afforded peculiar gratification, because 
they embody sentiments to which 'hey, as old Clay Whigs, h- artily respond. 
The undersigned regret the existence of the stare of facts which rendered 
their publication in a Democratic newspaper a matter of necessity, since 
by reason thereof they have failed of that general circulation among old 
line Whigs, wh ch is des'rable. Such being the case, we write to request 
through you, gentlemen, that the author will consent to arrange them for 
publication in pamphlet form, for wider distribution, feeling assured that 
their gen ?ial perusal will not only be highly gratifying, but productive of 
great good. 

Very respectfully, 

THOS. L. BRANSFORD, 
DAN. A. JOHNSTON, 
J. J. S BILLINGS, 
C. STONE, 
THOS HAYWOOD, 
R. W, HAYWOOD, 
Messrs. G. C. Torbett & Co., Publishers Union and American. 



PEEFACE. 



In view of the publication in pamphlet form of the Series of 
Articles, entitled " Reflections and Suggestions on the Present 
State of Parties," by an " Old Clay Whig," which have been 
published in the columns of the Union and American, a few 
words of explanation are due both the writer and the pub- 
lic. The subjects discussed have been considered without any 
regular order or design, as they were not intended to be pre- 
sented in any other shape than that in which they originally 
appeared. 

The writer, being simply a private citizen, and not actively 
engaged in politics, was strongly disinclined to thrust his name 
before the public ; nor does he consider that such a course 
would have been either necessary or proper. 

If what he has written be truths, no name, however humble, 
should detract from their influence. If his statements and 
conclusions are founded in error, no name, however exalted, 
should entitle them to respect. 

It may be proper, however, to state (for the reason that 
some persons have expressed a desire to be informed upon the 
subject,) that the writer is a native of Tennessee, and by birth 
and education, a Protestant. He was a devoted friend to 
Henry Clay, from his boyhood to the death of that distin- 
guished leader of the Whig party. He has never cast his 
vote for but two members of the Democratic party during a 
period of about twenty years. His last vote as a Whig was 
for the Whig candidate for Governor in 1853. In the last 
election for Governor he abstained from voting, for reasons 



which will readily suggest themselves to the minds of thou- 
sands of old Whigs, who, like himself, hoped, almost against 
hope, that something might occur, to again nationalize our old 
party, upon issues less repugnant to the broad and comprehen- 
sive principles of our government, than those presented by 
the American or Know-Nothing party. 

Should there be any one connected with the press in Nash- 
ville, who desires any verification of the political antecedents 
of the writer, he refers them to the gentlemen who have, over 
their own signatures, desired the publication of the articles in 
question in pamphlet form. 

Whatever may be the attitude of the writer towards other 
political parties, he claims no exemption from his portion of 
responsibility for " the obnoxious acts or violated pledges" of 
the Whig party, and will ever be willing to subscribe himself, 
without any apology or explanation, 

" AN OLD CLAY WHIG," 



REFLECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ON THE 
PRESENT STATE OF PARTIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



Old party dlvis ons.— Present parties and their principles.— Great Britain in combination 
with the Abolitionists.— Malignity of the Black Republican Leaders.— Banks, the Speaker, 
and his opinions — The Great Question of the Day. — The importance of a union of the 
whole South. — What course will Old Whigs pursue? 

To a full understanding of the present state of parties, a 
very brief recurrence to those into which the country has been 
previously divided, is necessary. My purpose is rather to pre- 
sent an array of admitted facts, for the consideration of those 
who have occupied a position similar to my own in the past, 
than to make any labored argument in justification of my own 
conclusions. From the period of the presidency of Martin 
Van Buren to the advent of the Know-Nothing party, there 
were two national political parties — the Whig and Democratic, 
and a northern sectional faction, which, although in the excite- 
ment of party contests it may have been sometimes courted, 
was nevertheless thoroughly despised by both. These parties 
were divided upon measures and questions of policy, which are 
too well known to require that I should refer to them in detail. 
Upon the assembling of the present Congress, the great change 
which had taken place in the position of parties was made 
manifest in the election of their Speaker. There were three 
parties represented, to wit: The Know-Nothings, whose nu- 
merical strength was estimated at more than one hundred, 
and which was, therefore, the dominant party in the House; 
the Black Republicans, and Democrats. For the first time 
within the recollection of a majority of the citizens of the 
Union, the Whig party was not represented on the floor of 
Congress. The nomination of Mr. Banks, the leader of the 
northern Know-Nothings, for Speaker, was attended by a fu- 
sion of the great body of that party north with the Black Re- 
publicans ; and thus, for the first time in tne history of the 



country, an uncompromising Abolitionist was chosen to that 
high position. An analysis of the vote, by which he was 
elected, shows that out of one hundred and three votes received 
by him, about seventy were either of the Know- Nothing party, 
or owed their seats in Congress to that party. The southern 
Know-Nothings seceded from the main body of their party, 
and nominated an independent candidate. These three parties 
are now actively preparing for the approaching presidential 
campaign, under the following programme of principles, to wit : 

The "Republicans," embracing that combination of northern 
Know-Nothings and Abolitionists, shadowed forth in the fusion 
for the election of Mr. Banks— who are opposed to the admis- 
sion into the Union of any more slave States — opposed to the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and in favor of excluding the southern 
States from the Territories by an act of Congress. 
_ The American or Know-Nothing party, confined almost en- 
tirely to the southern States, by the secession of its northern 
allies — who are in favor of changing the naturalization laws, 
and are opposed to foreign-born citizens or Catholics holding 
offices in the government. 

And the National Democratic party, which advocates the 
principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill — the equality of the 
States — liberty of conscience in questions of religious faith — 
the right of the people under the constitution to elect whomso- 
ever they please to fill all offices under the government; and 
the unrestricted liberty of the Territories to come into the 
Union, whenever they may lawfully do so, with whatever con- 
stitution the people may adopt, provided it is republican in 
form ! 

The Republican party, as its principles would indicate, is 
sectional, and embraces only the northern or free States of the 
Union. In its ramifications, however, it is connected with ma- 
ny anti-slavery associations in Europe, but more especially in 
Great Britain. It would be an error to suppose that this party 
Embraced only the misguided fanatics, whose insane ravings 
have converted many of the churches in the north into mere 
political club rooms — subverting what were once regarded as 
the sanctuaries of the Almighty, where were taught the peace- 
ful precepts of Christ, into unhallowed arenas, where madmen 
and traitors, preach murder and treason to madmen and trai- 
tors like themselves. These fanatics are the mere instruments 
and tools of designing men, whose purposes embrace a much 
wider scope than the mere enfranchisement of the slave. That 
a secret understanding subsists between the leaders of this 
party and men of high position in Great Britain, is undoubted. 
Occasionally the secret machinations of these conspirators are 



brought to light — one incident of which is alluded to as follows, 
by a leading New York journal : 

[From the New York Express.] 

The Belfast News Letter, one ot the oldest and most respect- 
able journals of Ireland, makes public the following statement 
of its Liverpool correspondent : 

" We are assured that Charles Sumner and Lord Carlisle 
have been in active correspondence on the slavery question. 
The league between the aristocracy of the old world, and the 
abolition disunionists of the United States is perfect," 

The Earl of Carlisle is Lord Lieutenant of Ireland — Charles 
Sumner is an abolitionist Senator of the United States from 
Massachusetts, and a kind of Drummond Light of the Black 
Republican faction. 

This disclosure of the Belfast journal, is only a new evi- 
dence of the close and intimate alliance between the Black 
Republican Abolition party in the United States, and the aris- 
tocracy of Great Britain, which was already known to exist. 
It is not long since that the London Daily News, the oracle of 
the British anti-slavery society, declared right out that in the 
event of a war between England and the United States, it had 
the fullest assurance that the anti-slavery part)) here would be 
with Great Britain. Quite natural, all this ! What sympathy 
can the aristocracy of Great Britain have for the American 
Union, which was reared on the ruins of monarchy ? What 
love can their Abolition and Black Republican allies, on this 
side of the Atlantic, have for that same Union, which is held 
together by a constitution which they are in the habit of de- 
nouncing as an " atrocious bargain" — nay, the Union itselt as 
a " League with Death, and a Covenant with Hell ?" 

We may listen to the mad ravings of fanatics in the 
churches, and in the public assemblages in the North, with 
some degree of composure, but surely it is matter ior serious 
consideration on the part of the South, when almost every day 
brings forth some new development of the combination of our 
old British foe, with this formidable party. As pertinent to 
this branch of the subject, I select a paragraph from a speech 
delivered by Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, in the Congress of the 
United States : 

" Mr. Giddings said : I look forward to the day when I shall 

see a servile insurrection at the South. When the black man, 

supplied with British bayonets, and commanded by British officers. 

shall wage a war of extermination against the ichites — when tin 

' master shall see his dwelling in flames, and his hearthstone pollu- 



8 

ted, — and though I may not mock at their calamity, and laugh 
when their fear cometh, yet I shall hail it as the dawn of a polit- 
ical milleniuffl, ! ! " 

These maftgnant expressions of hatred, envy, malice, and 
depravity, are uttered in the halls of Congress, not by a de- 
spised leader of a contemptible faction, but by one of the most 
notable and influential members of the dominant party. The 
sentiments of Giddings, we have every reason to believe, are the 
sentiments of that combination which placed Mr. Banks in the 
Speaker's Chair of the House of Representatives — for previous 
to the election of Mr. Banks he gave utterance to opinions 
scarcely less repugnant to decency and propriety, (although 
not exhibiting so great a degree of malignity,) notwithstanding 
which he was still upheld as the leader of Black Republican- 
ism. 

The response of Mr. Banks to the question as to which was 
the superior race, the white or the black, should not be regard- 
ed as an unpremeditated reply upon an unstudied subject ; on 
the contrary, it evidenced much reflection and a thorough 
knowledge of its important bearing upon the real question at 
issue. The intelligent Abolitionist can not say, without stulti- 
fying himself, that the negro is the equal of the white race, 
either morally, physically, or intellectually: he is estopped 
from saying that he is inferior, because the most inveterate 
enemy to slavery, would, by this admission, be forced to allow 
that laws conferring equal rights, political and social, on a race 
on whom the Almighty had fixed the ineffable impress of ine- 
quality, could result in nothing hut evil ti> both, and an irre- 
parable injustice to that race upon which nature had stamped 
the seal of superiority. Mr. Banks, therefore, evaded a direct 
response to the interrogatory, which, if answered truthfully, 
would destroy the whole fabric of Abolitionism, and pointed 
to a future absorption of the inferior race, which would render 
a solution unnecessary. 

These are the principles and purposes of that party, as enun- 
ciated by its leaders, which now controls the popular branch of 
Congress. These are the ideas which have taken such deep 
hold upon the minds of the people of the North, that all pre- 
vious party ties have been severed. Even the new, and tor a 
time powerful, organization known as Americans or Know- 
Nothings, has been split in twain by the geographical line 
which divides the slave from the free States. The Southern 
Americans could not. muster even a corporal's guard of their 
confreres to stand by them in the protracted struggle for the 
Speakership If their eloquent appeals could have awakened 
a sympathetic feeling in the breasts of even three of their 



9 

Northern brethren, this disgrace to the nation, and humiliation 
to the South could never have been achieved. In vain did the 
Southern Americans say to them — " The distinctive principle 
of our party is that Americans shall rule America," and " our 
mission is to establish the Holy Protestant faith." Their re- 
sponse was — "We coincide with you in your opposition to for- 
eigners and Catholics, but we have a stronger feeling of hos- 
tility to the South and her institutions." 

There was a small, but noble and determined band of pa- 
triots from the Northern States, who, throughout that long 
contest for supremacy in the House of Representatives, stood 
unwaveringly by the South, and they are none the less enti- 
tled to be held in grateful remembrance by every party in the 
South, because they were all members of the Democratic party. 
All honor to those noble and gallant spirits, who, amid the 
faithlessness of so many, proved true to the constitution, and 
to the equal rights of the South ! 

Admitting, for the sake of argument, the improbable fact 
that the discordant elements of the American party could be 
consolidated in the Presidential election, and that they should 
thereby secure a party triumph, would it not, in effect, be the 
triumph of Black Republicanism ? Would not the scenes of 
the present Congress be re-enacted in the next? What rea- 
son has the South to hope that the Black Republican-Know- 
Nothingism in the future, will differ from what it has been in 
the pa»t ? It matters not under what name Abolitionism may 
attain power; and the history of this struggle for the Speaker- 
ship shows that Northern Republicanism and Northern Know- 
Nothingism upon this vital question are identical. It is clear- 
ly manifest to the most superficial observer, that Know-Noth- 
jngism can only be successful in that contest by securing the 
support of the party which elected Banks Speaker; and that, 
therefore, the success of that party would be as fatal to the 
South as would be the triumph of Black Republicanism itself. 

In view of the undeniable truths herein presented, I submit 
to reflecting and patriotic Whigs, whether they do not oweaduti/ 
to their country above and beyond their allegiance to parly lead- 
ers ? Whether they should not bury all past political un kind- 
ness in a considerate regard for their country's welfare? The 
citadel of the Union is beleaguered by its foes — their bat- 
teries are planted upon the hill tops which overlook its de- 
fences — their mailed warriors are thundering at the gates — 
their black banners are waving in triumph upon the dome ot 
the National Capitol — while we, who should be its defenders, 
are ingloriously wrangling among ourselves as to the partial- 



10 

lar form of sectarian faith we shall adopt on going forth to bat' 
tie!! 

What madness in old Whigs to hesitate, when, if they have 
eyes, they must see the danger ! Our own party no longer 
exists, and cannot, therefore, throw itself in the breach. All 
the old questions which divided us have passed away — new 
issues have arisen, and upon the most vital of these we agree 
with our former adversary. The issue is upon us, and we could 
not, if we would, avoid it. Abolitionism is the great question 
of the day, which has absorbed all others. In the fervid, 
eloquent, and impassioned language of the Nashville Patriot: 

"It has become a great, live, earnest, practical question! ! It 

IS WRESTLING WITH THE GOVERNMENT FOR ITS VERY LIFE, 

and is a most dangerous antagonist. Obsolete land distribu- 
tion, bank, and tariff questions, may be eschewed and ignored, 
but a question which threatens the sacrifice of State and indi- 
vidual rights, not to speak of the millions of property, CANNOT 
BE IGNORED!!" 

Every well informed, unprejudiced man, must see, and feel, 
and know, that the only security against Black Republican 
rule, will consist in a cordial union of the South with the na- 
tional men of the North. However patriotic the American 
party in the South may be, the proceedings of the Northern 
Americans in the present Congress, and in their late conven- 
tion at Philadelphia, where they declared that unless the 
slavery section was. stricken from their platform, they could not 
carry a single State, proves that they cannot be trusted. The 
American party in the South may be potent for mischief by 
dividing us, but they" have proven themselves powerless to 

* ave ! 

That the mass of the Southern Know-Nothings are sound 
upon the great question of Southern rights no doubt can be 
entertained. However much it may comport with the instincts 
rtjf some professional politicians and newspaper editors, to 
pronounce all who differ with them as hypocrites, I cannot be 
tempted to do an injustice to others, with whom I may not 
Hs/ree, and whose patriotism is fully equal to my own. But 
it 1^ to P e apprehended that, in the contest which is approach- 
they will, in their party zeal for Mr. Fillmore, endeavor to 
cheat themselves and the country into the belief that the dan- 
oer to result to our institutions by the political supremacy of 
Tiaek R epublicanism, is not so imminent as has been supposed. 
Forgetful of the teachings of the past, and overlooking the 
portentous clouds which overhang our political horizon, they 
may attempt to excuse themselves for fomenting division in 



11 

the South, by declaring the danger to be too remote to occa- 
sion serious apprehension. But will the people suffer them- 
selves to be beguiled by those who endeavor to lull them into 
a fatal repose, by the delusive cry of "Peace ! peace !" " when 
there is no peace ?" 

Will the honest and patriotic old Whigs prove deaf to the 
warning which is wafted upon every breeze from the capital of the 
Union, where Black Republicanism rules triumphant, and turn 
aside from the path which duty invites them to follow ? 



CHAPTER II. 

Where are old Whics to gi?— Nomination of Mr. Fillmore, a fraud upon the South— The Phila- 
delphia Convention unsound on the Southern question — View? of the Klack Republican 
organs— They expect Old Line Whigs to divide the South — Whigs should rapport the 
National Candidate. — Franklin Pierce's National Principles. 

Where am I to go? Since the nomination of Messrs. Fill- 
more andJDoNELSON by the American or Know-Nothing Conven- 
tion at Philadelphia, this question has no doubt suggested it- 
self to the minds of thousands of old line Whigs in the South, who 
are impressed with the conviction that their action may exer- 
cise a most potent, if not a controlling, influence in the decision 
of the great and absorbing question, upon which the fate of 
the Union may be said to be suspended 

Many old Whigs, through force of habit, have thus far fol- 
lowed the Know-Nothing leaders since the disruption of the 
Whig party, without entertaining any sympathy for the new 
principles they enunciated. Others have kept aloof altoge- 
ther from party contests, preferring to'await events which mi'j-ht 
indicate the path they should pursue. 

A cloud seemed to hang over the future of our glorious Re- 
public, and they preferred to wait until they could see "day 
light ahead" before attaching themselves to either of the 
parties, who were marshalling their forces for the next great 
struggle for the Presidency. 

A careful analysis of the elements composing the late Know- 
Nothing Convention, must force the conclusion upon every un- 
prejudiced mind, that the nomination of Mr. Fillmore was a 
deliberately preconcerted fraud upon the Southern people/ 



12 

This may seem paradoxical, taken in connection with the 
fact that of all the leaders of the Know-Nothing party Mr. Fill- 
more was perhaps the most acceptable to the South ; but let us 
consider the circumstances under which, and the men by whom, 
that nomination was effected. 

Ever since the adoption of the famous 12th section, it has 
been apparent that the party North and South could never be 
made to harmonize without an unconditional surrender on the 
part of the South of all claim to a political equality with the 
North. 

The great bulk of the Know-Nothing strength was in the 
North, and the Black Republican party itself was not more ultra 
in its hostility to the South, nor more indissolubly united upon 
that vital issue. 

Upon this question they would make no concessions — they 
would listen to no compromises ! Their bitterness against 
the South could only be satiated by her humiliation ; and with 
this spirit, ana with a determination to accomplish this pur- 
pose, the convention assembled. 

Never before in any convention in this Union, purporting to 
be national, and which was at least composed of representa- 
tives from all sections of the country, has there been exhibited 
such a spirit of sectional bitterness as characterized its pro- 
ceedings. 

The 12th section, the only plank in their platform upon which 
the party could hope to stand in the South, was ruthlessly 
stricken down. 

Black Republicanism, in the guise of Americanism, held un- 
disputed sway, and with a coarseness of vituperation peculiar 
to that school of fanatical traitors, they reviled the South and 
her institutions with a bitterness more worthy the columns of 
an incendiary Abolition journal, than of a deliberative national 
convention. 

Many of the Southern members denounced the convention 
as a band of traitors, and left the hall, followed by the jeers 
and hisses of the rampant Abolition majority. No course seem- 
ed left for the South, consistent with honor and self-respect, but 
an immediate secession from the party; and in fact, at this 
stage of the proceedings the party was regarded by all as vir- 
tually dissolved. 

Every true Southern member, no doubt, felt that he had no 
other alternative left than to unite with the national Democratic 
party, in opposition to the fell spirit of aggression against the 
rights of the South, which was the pervading sentiment of the 
majority. 

It is certain that this is the aspect in which it was regarded 



13 

by the Northern majority. A little calm reflection convinced 
those resolute but cool headed free-soilera that in driving off the 
Southern wing of their party, they forced them into a union 
with the national Democrats, and by this union would secure 
the triumph of the national party in the Presidential election. 

How was this result to be avoided? A cordial union of the 
two sections was imposible, for they were hopelessly antagonis- 
tical upon the great issue involved in the Presidentinl contest. 
The North could present no candidate entertaining their views 
who could be tolerated by the South. It being, therefore, im- 
possible for the vote of the two sections to be united upon the 
same candidate, the consideration next in importance was to 
prevent the Southern wing of the party from uniting with the 
national Democrats, by allowing them to select an acceptable 
man, upon whom they might unite all the elements of opposi- 
tion to the Democratic party in the South. 

The Southern delegates seized greedily upon the bait, and the 
nomination of Mr. Fillmore, in a convent ion, a majority of whum 
were notoriously opposed to him, or any other candidate having 
the semblance of nationality, was the result. 

It is apparent, that the North allo.ved of his nomination with 
the deliberate intention of withholding from him its support, 
and of unitingwith the'Black Republicans in the support of an- 
other candidate, while they hoped to accomplish a permanent 
division in the Southern States, by attracting to Mr. Fillmore 
the old line Southern Whigs. 

Upon what otht r hypothesis can we account for the undeni- 
able fact, that a minority nominated a candidate against the 
known sentiment of a majority? That a majority repudiating 
a certain principle should yet allow the minority to select a 
candidate favoring that principle, and upon that sole issue ! 
We repeat then that the nomination of Mr. Fillmore was a 
fraud upon the South, perpetrated deliberately, by a party which 
did not intend to support him, but with the sole view of pre- 
venting the union of the South against the aggressive spirit of 
the fanatics in the great struggle which is approaching. 

As confirmatory of this \ievv, we subjoin the following ex- 
tracts from a leading article in the New York Courier and En- 
quirer of the xlGth of March. 

It must be borne in mind that this paper once strongly sym- 
pathized with the American movement, although now a leader 
in the Black Republican ranks : 

[From the New York Courier and Enquirer ] 

The Next Presidency — Daylight Ahead. — As the time ap- 
proaches for marshalling the forces of different parties for the 
next Presidential campaign, the character of that struggle be- 



14 

cnmes more apparent, and the materials for judging of the pro- 
bable result, more tangible. Two weeks ago, it was impossi- 
ble, for any person, however great his political acumen, to form 
any reasonable conjecture as to the probable character of the 
next Presidential contest; but now, thanks to the iriends of 
Mr. Fillmore, the political horizon is becoming clear, and he 
who runs may read what is to be the character of the next 
Presidential contest. 

1 he nomination of Mr Fillmore was an unexpected move- 
ment, and for some weeks at least threw all political calcula- 
tions and combinations into the greatest confusion. The con- 
sequences nobody could foresee; but just Mi the ratio that it 
lost favor with the Know-Nothings of the North, the friends of 
the nomination sought to propitiate the Southern wing of the 
American party. And it is to this fact, that we are indebted 
for the clearing away of the political fog which obscured the 
future. Within a few days the friends of Mr. Fillmore at Wash- 
ington, have given the most emphatic assurances to the South- 
ern Know-Nothings, that in the event of his election to the 
Presidency, he will not, under any contingency, countenance or 
be a party to, any legislation which shall distiub that portion of 
the Kansas- Nebraska act which repeals the Missouri Compromise. 
This declaration has been received in good faith by the South- 
ern wing of the American party in Congress, and they have 
put it forth to their constituents in like good faith ; and they 
now publicly proclaim, and have the best reason for believing, 
that on this platform — which is in fact, as much the Nebraska- 
Kansas platform as that which will be put forth by the democ- 
racy under the advisement of Mr. Douglas — they can carry all, 
or nearly all, the Whig States of the South. And in this opin- 
ion we concur. With a pro-slavery platform, such as the 
friends of Fillmore have pledged themselves to sustain and ad- 
vocate, the Whig party, under a new name, are in position 
again in the Southern States, and without any other loss than 
that portion of them who shrewdly perceive that the carrying 
of a few Southern States will not elect Mr. Fillmore President, 
and who, desiring to be with the majority, will, iherelore, sustain 
the Democratic ticket. 

With this assurance of support at the South, all prospect of 
Mr. Fillmore's being withdrawn from the next contest necessa- 
rily ceases ; and consequently, it becomes a matter of absolute 
certainty, that there will be ihree candidates in the field for 
the next Presidency, viz : The Democratic candidate, to be nom- 
inated at Cincinnati in June, upon the basis of the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill and the extension of slavery into the Territories ; — 
Millard Fillmore, nominated by the Know-Nothings, and 



15 

pledged to sustain the action of the Democracy in the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise to the same extent as the Democracy 
itself ; — and the nominee of the Republican party. 

The Democratic party will, of course, receive the support of 
all the members of that parly, who approve of the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. Mr. Fillmore will, in like manner, re- 
ceive the votes of all the Whigs who approve of that uncalled- 
for proceeding, and of the slavery agitation, and the Kansas 
outrages which necessarily followed. And the nominee of the 
Republican party will, of course, be cordially supported by every 
individual, no matter to what party he may have belonged 
heretofore, who is honestly opposed to the extension of slavery into 
free territory. ******** 

Such is the programme of the next Presidential campaign; 
and we are free to confess., that we are most thankful to Mr. 
Fillmore and his friends for having produced this result. Of 
course, no body will vole for Mr. Fillmore, who would not in the 
existing state of affairs have voted for the Democratic instead of 
the Republican ticket ; and therefore, it necessarily follows, that 
the third party will draw votes only from the Democratic ticket. 
The only question of principle involved in the next contest, is 
the extension of slavery by the direct legislation of Congress, 
into Territory now free through the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise, made in good faith in 1820, and resistance to ihat act 
of bad faith. 

The question has been asked — Who will be the candidate of 
the Republican party? This is a question which no man can 
answer ; but it is manifest to us, that he will be one who is 
thoroughly identified with the great principle involved in the 
contest. If Mr. Fillmore had not been placed in nomination, 
there might, and probably would have been, some trimming in 
this matter ; and claims would have been urged on the pari of 
those who were least obnoxious to the advocates of slavery- 
extension. But not s^> now. The contest is narrowed down 
to a direct issue on a great and vital principle ; and our stand- 
ard bearer will be him, who shall prove himself to be the 
ablest, the staunchest, and the most fearless advocate of that 
principle. 

The above exhibits the exultant aspect in which the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Fillmore is regarded by the inveterate and unap- 
peasable enemies of the South. The premises are correctly 
laid down, and the conclusions are irresistible. 

To the old line Whigs of the South is assgned the inglorious 
part of securing the triumph of Black Republicanism, by the 
support of a candidate for the Presidency who has no earthly 
chance of an election, and the consequent withholding of their 



1G 



support from the only party which can, by any possibility 
make head against the mad fanaticism of that large portion of 
Northern people who seem resolved, at all hazards, to accom- 
plish the humiliation of the South, though at the expense of 
the Union itself. ^ 

Under this programme the old line Whigs of the South are to 
support Mr. Fillmore. The national Democrats of the South 
are to support their candidate, while the united phalanx of 
Northern B.ack Republicanism and Amcrican-Know-NolhwHsm 
is to secure an easy victory over a divided foe ! ! 

Already do we perceive in the North, the portentous signs 
of that fusion of all the elements of opposition to the South 
In Congress they act in perfect harmony, and in their public 
assemblages they fraternize as men having a common pur- 
pose Their pulpits even are desecrated by 'inflammatory and 
D oodthirsty harangues, counselling union and harmony in 
all the elements of Black Republicanism. 

The nomination of Mr. Fillmore has removed the dark 
clouds which obscured the sun of Black Republicanism : and they 
can now, for the first time, ( says their organ, the Courier and 
inquirer,) behold « day-light ahead !" But the glare of that 
bright sun-light has shed its rays also upon our path; and we, 
too tJic betrayed Whigs of the South, can see "day-light ahead. " 
m 1 he old ,ine Whigs of the South cannot fail to perceive that 
in the present state of affairs there is but one party that can 
save the country; and most anxiously do we hope that the na- 
tional Democratic party, vvhich assembles in June, will present 
for our support a tried man upon whom all national men mav 
unite. J 

With such a man as Franklin Pierce, as the standard bear- 
er of the national flag', the old line Whigs will rallv with an 
enthusiasm scarcely surpassed in the brightest period of their 
political career. They know, from the past, that he can be 
trusted in the future. They have seen hrfn bare his bosom to 
the storm of fanaticism and boldly proclaim equality of rights 
for the South, amid the execrations of our enemies. We have 
beheld him in every trying emergency of his administration, 
<the unflinching upholder of civil and religious liberty, and the 
undaunted champion of our national honor. 

We feel and know that the great whig heart of the nation 
will respondjoyously to his nomination, or that of any other 
sound and tried champion of the Union and Constitution. 

We feel that we speak the sentiment of the great conserva- 
tive Whig party, when we say that they will obey their country's 
call in the hour of her greatest need, and that they will never . 
consent to be the tools of the fanatical and traitorous enemies 



17 

of the Union. They will never consent to bs the instruments 
of tKe humiliation of the South, and the degradation of her 
free born sons, but they vviil throw the weight of their powerful 
influence to that great national party whose motto is every 
where the same — <; Equal laws, equal fights, an. I a faithful ob- 
servance of ike compromises of the Constitution" 



CHAPTER III. 



Two parties divldr the country on the Slavery Question— The entire South oppose Abolition- 
j gm — Usi led acii»n <.f old lulc Wtni»8 can defeat Ulaofc Xepiblicaiii-nn— 1'uoy should sao- 
pfle* personal predilections for the fio I of the country —A few words to patriotic Know- 
Nothings. — 1 be votes given to Mr. Fillmore may secure the success of the Aboliiioiiuts. 

I have not yet discussed the distinctive principles of the 
American or Ivoow-Nothing organization, because, independent 
of any objection which might be urged by old Whigs against 
the creed of this party, we could not agree, by supporting the 
candidates of that party, to create a diversion in the Southern 
States, in favor of the triumph of Black Republicanism. 

Two great parties are arrayed against each other, vprn a di- 
rect and tingle issur,for the first time.. The one, the. Black Re- 
publican party, entirely sectional in its organization, but form- 
idable, io that it combines all the elements of opposition to 
slave.y, and the equal rights of the Southern States. 

The other, the great conservative National party, which 
maintains that all the people, ofthe United States and the re- 
spective States, have equal rights in the Territories, which are 
the common property ofthe nation, and which were purchased 
by the common blood and treasure ofthe whole people. 

\o matter what our party predilections may be, wheiher 
Whig, Democratic, or American, we of the South profess to 
agree in our opposition tothj Black Republican creed. We all 
perceive the gathering storm; we see the compact columns of 
the enemy in the distance. We know the feelings of hatred, 
envy and malice with which we are regarded by that fanatical, 
but cool, calculating and persevering enemy ; and either ofthe 
parties South wouid crush them under its heel, if they could do 
•o, and were allowed to dictate the mannerin which it should 
b. done; but still we do not. as we should, present an undivided 
front. There is now but little hope that we can be entirely 
2 



18 

united in that contest. Mr. Fillmore has been^ nominated, as 
we have shown heretofore, with the settled purpose to make 
that union in the South impossible. 

A united action on the part of the old line Whigs, however, 
if properly directed, can secure the triumph of the National 
party in every State, south of Mason and Dixon's line, by an 
overwhelming majority. In withholding our support from Mr. 
Fillmore, and transferring it to the National candidate, we are 
not doing violence to any principle which we have heretofore, 
as Whigs, professed. On the- contrary, we are occupying the 
great national, conservative ground upon which we have always 
stood. We are now standing where our American friends left 
us, when they deserted, as it were, the faith of their fathers, and 
went off in pursuit oi strange idols. 

While we are deeply grieved at the apostacy of those leaders 
of the old Whig party who, wearied with long waiting for the 
spoils of power, and depressed by an overwhelming defeat, 
sought to rise upon a popular hobby on the ruins of our time- 
honored organization ; and while we would have delighted to 
do them honor and to heap rewards upon them, when we had 
any to bestow, yet a higher duty impels us now to adhere to 
our old land marks, even to the sacrifice of any lingering at- 
tachment we might have entertained for those um'er whose 
leadership we have so often, in times past, engaged in political 
conflicts. That this is the sentiment of the thousands of old 
Clay Whigs, who have, since the advent of Know-Xothingism, 
kept aloof Irom all party contests, no doubt can be entertained ; 
and that they will, in the approaching great struggle for the 
liberties of the South, give their hearty support to the National 
Democratic candidate, if he be a tried andjtrue man, is no long- 
er a question to be debated. Any other course would be in- 
consistent with all their antecedents, and with the faith which 
they have always professed, and with that conservatism which 
they always claimed to be the distinctive characteristic of their 
party. All the temporary questions of policy which divided the 
two great parties of the past have been disposed of, and are no 
longer subjects of discussion. There is now one great issue 
pending, and upon that we agree ! 

Thus far I have indicated the course of those only of the old 
Whig party who have not enlisted under the banner of Know- 
Nothingism. I will now briefly address myself to that portion 
of the old Whig party who, under what they considered patri- 
otic impulses, have attached themselves to the so called Ameri- 
can party. 

When we regard calmly the political history of the past two 
years — when we look around us at the present moment, and 



19 

find the great rtnd growing Abolition party of the North, under 
the name ot' Republicans, combining all the elements of sec- 
tional and fanatical hatred to the South, embracing within its 
serpent-folds the eminent, as well as the obscure, from all the 
old political organizations of the North — when we find that, of 
the assembled Representatives of the nation at Washington, 
with the exception of the small but noble band of National 
Democrats, the entire North, of all shades of political opinions, 
and without regard to previous differences, have joined the 
hand of fellowship under the banner of Black Republicanism — 
when we find that, throughout the entire North, the ministers 
of Gel's holy word have desecrated their pulpits and have be- 
lied their holy calling, by preaching a crusade of blood against 
the people of the South — can we doubt the declaration ot the 
Black Republican organ from which we have quoted, that « the 
contest for the next Presidency is narrowed down to a direct is- 
sue on a g) eat and vital principle ? " 

This btung so, is it not the duty of all National men, and es- 
pecially of the entire South, to unite in solid phalanx against 
the encroachments of this formidable combination ? 

Will Mr. Fillmore receive the support of a solitary man, 
North or South, who would, if he were out of the way, vote the 
Black Republican ticket ? And, on the other hand, is it not 
clear that all those who will bestow their suffrages upon Mr. 
Fillmore, would, if he were not a candidate, vote with" the Na- 
tional Democrats, against the Black Republicans? 

The response of every true man in the American party would 
unhesitatingly be, that the supporters of Mr. Fillmore would 
vote for the National Democrat, rather than the Black Repub- 
lican. 

It follows, then, that the entire vote of Mr. Fillmore will be 
abstracted from the strength of the National party in that great 
struggle; and by whatever sophistry it maybe attempted to 
gloss it over, the truth is irresistible that those who thus divide 
the National party, contribute to, and will be responsible for, 
the triumph ot Black Republicanism. 

This is a harsh conclusion; but we ask the honest and true 
Whigs of the old school, as well as the patriotic rank and file 
of the new party, whether that conclusiun is not fairly dedu- 
cible from undeniable premises ? 



20 



CHAPTER IV. 

Bcply to the comments of the Nashville Patriot. — Reason for the publication of these articles 
in the Union. — Unpleasant to separate from old party associates — The Know -Nothing 
different from the Whig party — Know Nothing candidate for Vice President sn old 
Democrat -Proo' of the Aholitioni*m of the Philadelphia Convention — Sou'hern witnesses. 

Mr. Fillmore's nomination a trick, to prevent union in the boulh. — Cum men la on th» 

character of the Convention that nominated him. 

There are some points in the comments of the Nashville 
Patriot on the communications which have appeared in the 
Union and American, from an " Old Clay Whig," to which I 
desire briefly to reply. I will premise what I have to say by 
admitting, to the full extent, the advantage under which I labor 
in being debarred the privilege of reaching those for whom 
these articles have been chiefly intended, through the columns 
of a Whig paper. 

The Patriot taunts me with the misfortune which has be- 
fallen our old party, in not having an organ at Nashville, in 
the following ungenerous language : 

"He (An Old Clay Whig) selects, as the medium of his 
communication with them, a journal, which for a longer term 
of years than many of his readers can number, has been a 
consistent and inveterate enemy to Whig men and Whig 
principles. If he be sincere in his attempt to reach their 
hearts, and convince their judgments, he certainly addresses 
them under disadvantage. * * His selection of an 
organ, however well it may comport with his affinities, will 8 
with true Whigs, injure his cause, and weaken his efforts in 
teaching them their duty." 

The weakness and illiberality of this argument can only be 
appreciated by those who know that the Union and American 
13 the only paper published in Nashville that would give 
place in its columns to the communications of Old Clay 
Whigs, who oopese Know-Nothingism. 

The inference may, however, be drawn from the remarks of 
of the Patriot above quoted, that 1 would have been more 
liberally dealt with, by that paper, and that my communica- 
tions would have been suffered to appear in their columns. 
If this be the true meaning, I will accept most thankfully the 
proffered indulgence, and will, in future, spare the feelings of 
the sensitive Editors, by publishing the honest reflections of 
an Old Clay Whig, in the Patriot, instead of the Union and- 
American. 

I am only an occasional reader of the Patriot, but I have 
r*>l been unobservant of the distinguished ability with which 



21 

it has been conducted, nor of the manly and patriotic stand 
which it assumed and triumphantly maintained, in opposition 
to the trimming policy, which was advocated by many of ita 
cotemporaries ; nor am I unmindful of the delicate sense of 
propriety evinced by the present Editors, when, upon assuming 
a political position in conflict with their previous advocacy of 
Whig principles, they dropped the name of " TUUE WHIG*' 
and assumed another, by which that paper is at present 
known. I am fully aware, also, that in the Patriot, an Old 
Clay Whig has a skilful, accomplished, and able adversary; 
yet, so fixed am I in the conviction of the general correctness 
of my positions, that I would not fear to submit to an en- 
lightened public, even my plain, unvarnished statement, against 
its more polished and skillful rhetoric, if I could address my- 
self to the same readers, and upon more equal terms. 

The first comments of the Patriot upon the communications 
of " An Old Clay Whig," referring only to the supposed per- 
sonal qualities of 'he writer, without touching upon the merits 
of the subject discussed, a reply was considered neither ap- 
propriate or necessary. I regard the declaration that the 
members of the American party derive a gratification from 
the refusal of "An Old Clay Whig" to unite with them in 
the support of the Presidential ticket, rather as a splenetic 
ebullition of ill-humor, than the expression of any actually 
existing feeling. ] am well aware, from personal observation, 
that no party views with satisfaction the opposition of any 
quiet, unobtrusive citizen, however humble or obscure may be 
his position. 

Il this statement of the Patriot be true, however, I must 
frankly admit that the feeling has not been reciprocated. My 
associations, personal and political have been for so many 
years identified with Whigs and the Whig party, that I have 
regarded with painful emotions, the approach of that crisis in 
our political history which might produce an estrangement; 
not that political differences of opinion, necessarily affect our 
private friendships, but I know from personal observation, that 
such results sometimes follow. As for myself, my way of 
life is almost " fallen into the sear, the ytllovv leaf," and I well 
know, that there would be more quiet, and perhaps a greater 
degree of personal comfort, in floating on upon the cunent 
which bears a majority of those with whom 1'have been pre- 
viously associated by so many and such strong lies. But in a 
Ilepi.blic like ours, each citizen is a part of the State, and 
when he silently acquiesces in measures which his judgment 
tells him are fraught with evil to his country, he becomes 



22 

unworthy of the sovereignty conferred upon him by the Con- 
stitution. 

Upon the advent of the Know-Nothing (since denominated 
by its friends the American) party, a large majority of the 
Whig leaders attached themselves to its fortunes, abandoned 
the old Whig party, and adopted an entirely new set of prin- 
ciples, not only differing from, but in my view eminently 
antagonistical to, those they had previously professed. In 
common with thousands of other old Clay Whigs, I have de- 
clined to participate in or be a party to the movement. Our 
absence has been to some extent supplied by a heterogeneous 
compound of all the isms and disappointed politicians of other 
parties. For reasons which I have stated at length in the 
articles referred to by the Patriot, I am satis-fled that old line 
Whigs cnnnot consistently accord to it their support in the 
approaching Presidential election. 

But the Patriot thinks that the refusal of old Clay Whigs to 
support Mr. Fillmore, the candidate of the Ameiican party, 
can be regarded in no other light than as an act of political 
treachery to the old Whig party and principles ! This, too, in 
the face of the oft reiterated declaration of its leaders that the 
old parties, being " rotten and carrvpt" had been abandoned, 
and that " upon their ruins a new and virtuous party had arisen, 
composed ot the elite of all the old organizations," and with 
entirely new issues and principles, which commended them- 
selves to the support of the American people, no matter to 
what party they may have hitherto belonged. Would the 
Patriot have it understood now that the so-called Ameiican 
party is really and in fact nothing more nor less than the old 
Whig party under a new name, and thus impliedly admit, that 
these declarations have been made with the single purpose 
of entrapping unwary or over-credulous Democrats into its 
ranks ? 

But in another view: If, for the reason that I was an old 
Clay Whig, I cannot without treachery to my old principles, 
withhold my support from Mr. Fillmoee, vvVuld not the editors 
of the Patriot who were likewise old Clay Whigs, be guilty of 
equal treachery to those same principles, by conferring their 
support upon Andrew J. Donelson, who ntrer uas a Whig, 
who is not now a Whig, and who has, during his whole 
political life, been the constant and consistent opponent of 
Mr. Clay and his principles? It cannot be a virtue in the 
editor of the Patriot to support Mr. Doni:iscn, (a life-time 
Democrat,) and a vice in other old Clay Whigs to support 
another Democrat. If the dissolution of the old Whig party 



23 

has left old Whigs no other alternative than to vote for an old 
Democrat in the approaching - Presidential election, (and upon 
this point, if upon no other, I and the Patriot agree.) I think, in 
all fairness, they should be allowed to select from among the 
best. 

Different and sometimes conflicting deductions may be ex- 
tracted from admitted truths but it is impossible to argue 
questions understanding^ before an enlightened auditory, 
when the disputants differ in regard to the facts. When I 
stated in effect "that Mr. Fillmore was nominated by a body 
of men of heterogeneous admixture, who were unsound on the 
questions most vital and important to the South, and inferred 
therefrom (amongst other reasons) that his nomination was a 
fraud upon the South, I thought I was stating an undeniable 
historical fact. But the Patriot takes issue with me, and says 
that " the proposition cannot be sustained by the facts on a fair 
covrsi' of argumejUJl 

How else can we account for the bitter and caluminous as- 
saults on the South by its Northern members? How else 
justify the conduct of Southern delegates who, with indignant 
scorn, denounced the Convention as a "league of Abolitionists 
and traitors ? " 

The Patriot surely has not forgotten the declaration of one 
of the delegates from Tennessee in a speech before the Con- 
vention, that — 

f! He had been in may Conventions of a political, religious 
and commercial character, and had witnessed roics in Con- 
gress and in State Legislatures, but that THIS' WAS THE 
MOST DISORDERLY AND DISGRACEFUL CONVEN- 
TION HE HAD EVER SEEN ! ! " 

The same speaker, in continuation of his remarks, said that 
he " had been in all sorts of fights with all sorts of people, 
but that he did not wish to lose whatever of character he 
might have, by mixing it up with such low-flung material as 

HE FOUNT) THERE ! " 

When Mr. Bennett, of New York, who was supposed by the 
Abolitionists to be what they term a "dough face," arose to 
address the Convention, he was assailed by a torrent of hissea, 
yells, shouts and insults, to such an extent, it was seriously appre- 
hended that viclence to his person would follow ; in the midst 
of which he exclaimed, " I am not to be choked or hissed down : 
1 WILL SPEAK OR LEAVE THIS STAND A CORPSE ! " 

When Mr. Wood, of California, addressed the Convention 
" in defence (!) of the Southern Americans," (says a Tennessee 
delegate in his report of the proceedings,) "as usual, he was 
interrupted and insulted at every point by THE VILE delegates 



24 

from Massachusetts, Ohio. Michigan and Connecticut ! ! " And 
when the Hon. Charles Ready, of Tennessee, (distinguished 
alike for his urbanity of manners and courtesy in debate,) 
addressed the Council in opposition to the repeal of the 12th 
section, we are informed ; by the same writer that " he was 
interrupted throughout lus able and convincing speech by 
insulting taunts and irrelevant calls to order by the dirty Aboli- 
tion party I " * 

The editor of the Knoxville Whig, in his notice of the 
speech delivered before the Convention by Gen. Zollicoffer, 
published in that paper, says : 

" Gen. Z. in dealing out his facts and blows, enraged the Free 
Soil party to a pitch of desperation. They hissed him — 
ordered him to take his seat, and otherwise insulted him, and aU 
w/io were acting with him. He became indignant, and de- 
nounced than in withcrii g terms ; when the ichole house became a 
scene of confusion, uproar and disorder, never before equalled in 
any assembly I was in. A rush was made towards the President's 
chair, ivhcrc Zollicoffer stood, with the fingers, and hisses, and 
taunts of the vile, low flung, and disorderly Abolitionists pointed 
at him, as though, they intended personal violence. Southern 
men crowded around the stand, and cried out — "Say what you 
please, Zollicoffer; you can't be hint." Joseph Pickett, of 
Tennessee, sprang to his back, and told them to " give them 
hell, and they should not even resent it. n Another Tennesstan 
told him to " lay it on the negro-stealing vi/lians, and that if 

THEY HAD THE NUMERICAL STRENGTH TO DOT-VOTE US, W6 had the 

ability and courage to KICK them out of the Hall ! " 

The writer concludes the letter of which the foregoing is an 
extract, by saying : — 

"I have not overstated this picture, but have, on the main 
and leading points, correctly posted up my readers. * * 

I have no confidence in any oaths, obligations or pledges taken 
by these vile Abolitionists." 

Mr. Kyle, of Ohio, "contended that the principle of the 
12th section, could not be acknoivlcdgcd by any 'American, 
North ; he said that he dared not, would not, and could noi 
act, nor would Ohio act, with the American party, so long as 
that platform was retained." 

Gov. Ford, of tire same State, said, while the 12th section 
was under consideration, " that liberty was national, and 
slavery sectional," and he declared that he would sooner be 
found " stealing negroes from the South, and running them off to 
the free States, than to be found aidirg in hunting '.hem up, and 
returning them to bondage !" 

The facts here mentioned are derived altogether from tha 



25 

published statements of Southern delegates. I might swell 
these extracts lo columns, and indeed others of a still more 
discreditahle character, from well authenticated sources; but 
why pursue further the humiliating details? Do not these 
furnish sufficient evidence in support of my assumption, that 
the Convention which nominated Mr. Fillmore, was a "hetero- 
geneous admixture of discordant elements?" 

A few words now in reference to the attitude of the majority 
of that Convention " on the question most vital and important to 
the South.'' It will be remembered that two delegations from 
Pennsylvania claimed seats in the Convention — the one repre- 
senting the regular National 12lh section party, the other the 
seceding Abolition party. The latter was, upon a test vote, 
admitted to take their scats, by a vote of eighty-four to forty-five, 
against the united vote of the Southern delegates. The edi- 
tor of the Knoxville Whig says, in reference to this subject, 
writing from Philadelphia : 

"Even the vile and unprincipled rascals, who seceded in 
June last, are here, and have been allowed their seats, at least 
a portion of them. They have no right lo seats in this body, 
but the ruffians have the power, and they have voted themselves in! 
The convention adjourned to meet again to-morrow, when the 
Abolition forces wifl pitch into the 12th section, and no doubt re- 
peal it ! " 

And when the question < f the repeal of this section came be- 
fore the convention, we are infoimed by the same writer that 
" there was a fierce war and a protracted debate, " and that 

" Various amendments and substitutes were offered, and sev- 
eral test votes were taken, resulting generally in ninety-five fa- 
voring the Abolition views and seventy-five javoring the National 
party, composed of Southerners — the New York delegation act- 
ing with the South. " 

The 12th section was repealed, and, as if the South was not 
alreadly sufficiently humiliated by the| character of their pro- 
ceedings, the convention, by vote, declared its " opposition to 
the reckless and unwise policy of the present administration, 
as shown in re-opening sectional agitation, by the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise!" When it is considered that every del- 
egate from the South, who was a member of Congress at the 
time, voted for that repeal, that every Southern delegate then 
present cordially approved the measure, and that the entire party 
in the South, had, in common with the Democracy, planted 
itself upon the platform of the Kansas-Nebraska act of disen- 
thralment, it may readily be inferred that the thrust was not in- 
tended so much to wound the administration, as to inflict a bit- 
ter rebuke upon their Southern associates. 



7K- I 3&baK" 

p» fctieal afia 
^bBsfe** 1 the treta of o j afeeiara- 
A :iit eaareatraa **3 c o t - 

- 
■ jj r it ie a mtez rTtal as i iamni! £ Ih 

!.--;- 7 ' " -- 1 

i ■■!■ ! paSitfci laea be 

the Majority at the 

ttaaa raaaaataa 1 haw. aad vaieb hari the ssmt- 

: ham. aaa* we have a risat te oarcisdr 

:ar pavaase to a*i ia a*? eseetoa te the 

iz it- ia aiioava* 
1 . _ . , _ _ _. . . . : . ^ -• . . _ ^ . _ • . r _- - - f :i-:r 

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latnirr areeeaS am* «fcciie J Great. 

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-. tiarre ig at the iraaaStst piaiiihiliu af a» 

e canaal support ot the Sack 

r be a tree taaa ; or, aa- 

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27 
-in? to be B«tiosal. Tbix coaveatGnm «mt be 

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a»d po- 

Tbese resJots were in fbe 



28 

habit of presenting a practical illustration of their theory, by 
admitting the negro to terms of close intimacy, and it was no 
unfrequent spectacle in northern cities, to see delicate ladies 
walking the stieets, hanging upon the arm of a sooty African. 
By degrees the ranks of this faction were swelled by the ac- 
quisition of all those who, from envy, malice or sectional 
prejudices against the Southern States, conceived that they 
could most effectually gratify these feelings of animosity, by 
attacking the institution of slavery. Inflammatory publications 
emanating from the North, were circulated throughout the 
slave States, with a view to create discontent among the 
slaves, and to render that species of properly dangerous to the 
citizens, and insecure to the owners. 

Our old enemies in Great Britain, ever on the lookout to 
take advantage of our weak points, witnessed with gratifica- 
tion the germination and growth of that feeling in the North, 
which would inevitably, if persevered in, weaken the bonds of 
brotherhood between the two sections, and possibly end in the 
disruption of the great Republic, by dissolving the confederacy 
between the free and the slave States. She sent over her 
orators to traverse the free States for the purpose of descant- 
ing upon the horrors of slavery in general, and especially 
of black slavery in the Southern States of America. These 
incendiary emissaries were received with open arms by the 
Abolitionists, and a systematic warfare was agreed upon by the 
enemies of the South on both sides of the Atlantic. Forget- 
ful of the sufferings of thousands of starving subjects of the 
British crown — oblivious to the fact that ths entire career of 
British conquests has been marked by the tears and blood of 
those whom she has subjugated — heedless of the atrocious 
cruelties which have signalized for centuries her treatment of 
the conquered provinces of India, where millions of human 
beings have been swept from the earth, and where the re- 
mainder of that once enlightened, but unhappy people, have 
been degraded to the condition of brute beasts, by the rapacity 
of British rule — they mingled their crocodile tears over the 
hard fate of their enslaved colored brethren in the Southern 
States. 

The abolitionist who made himself notorious, by bitter de- 
nunciation and foul slanders of the South, was enthusiastically 
welcomed into the saloons of the Dukes and Duchesses, 
Lords and Ladies of aristocratic England. That grasping 
nation desired to weaken the growing power of the Republic, 
whose proportions were becoming so formidable as to excite 
her alarm for thefuture, and if she could accomplish our humili- 
ation through the instrumentality of our own recreant sons, 



29 

her nobility might well afford to abate a little of their ances- 
tral pride in the presence of her American allies. 

As this faction grew in strength under the fostering care of 
this Briti.-h and American Alliance, disappointed politicians 
began to look to it as a means of advancement, and by the 
skilful management of these new leadcis it assumed larger 
proportions, but was still too weak to make head against the 
National parties, until the meteor like advent of Know-Noth- 
inghm, and the consequent dismemberment and downfall of 
the Whig party as a National organization. 

At another time I purpose to allude more in detail to the 
origin and principles of the new party. It is sufficient for my 
purpose, to state the historical fact, that the great body of the 
Whig politicians, as if by preconcerted arrangement, aban- 
doned the old Whig ship that had borne them gallantly through 
many a storm — proclaimed her weather-beaten hull to be 
rotten and unseaworthy, and ensconscd themselves behind the 
ramparts of Know-Nothingism. Each particular State or 
section declared a set of principles for the new party, adapted 
to that special locality. In the South, of course, the party 
planted itself firmly upon the platform of Southern rights. 
In the North, the restraints imposed by the old IWhig principles, 
being removed, they adopted the creed of the Abolitionists, 
and at once united with that old faction in a bitter sectional 
war against the South. Many Democrats also swelled the 
ranks of the new party, and for a while a series of brlliant 
triumphs signalized their career. 

But the time arrived when it became necessary for the dif- 
ferent sections to meet together in a National Council, and 
then became apparent the hopelessly discordant materials of 
which it was composed. Then was made manifest the. folly of 
those Whig leaders in the South, who abandoned the old Whig 
party, to unite their fortunes with another/which had no common 
basis upon which the different sections could stand. But it was 
too late to recede. The leaders had irrevocably united them- 
selves with the fortunes of the new party — they had pronounced 
the Whig party to be " dead and buried," and they could not 
and would not attempt to accomplish its resurrection. 

Another Congress assembled, and for the first time in the his- 
ory of our government, Great Britain had the satisfaction of per- 
ceiving that her allies, the Abolitionists, were in the ascendant. 
A union of the Northern Know-Nothings and Free-Soilera 
produced this result. 

Mr. Banks, of Massachusetts, the leader of the Black Re- 
publican party in the House of Representatives, in reply to a 
question propounded, as to which was the superior race, the 



! 30 

white or the black, declared his inability to decide the question, 
but broadly intimated that the solution would be found in the 
amalgamation of the tivy, and the consequent absorption of the 
inferior race. 

This man, after the enunciation of this sentiment so revolt- 
ing to every principle of honor, propriety, or decency, was 
chosen Speaker, amid the bobtniag of cannons, the ringing of 
bells, and the jubilant shouts of the enemies of the South! 

They have now sunk all minor differences of opinion and 
have entered the lists for the Presidency, upon the sectional 
issue, '• That all the Territories of the United States, shall be 
reserved for the exclusive benefit and use of i j <iti/ j >:' 
the Northern States, while the citizens of the Southern States 
must confine themselves within their present territorial limits ! " 

I have already in my previous communcation indicated the 
result of the second effort of the Know-Nothings, South, to 
nationalize their party at Philadelphia, and have established 
beyond any doubt, that the Abolition majority in that Con- 
vention permitted the nomination of Messrs. Fillmoue and 
Donelson to prevent the union of the South upon any one 
national candidate, and with the intention of uniting them- 
selves with the Black Republican party. Having thus pre- 
sented frankly and fairly, the attitude of these two parties in 
reference to the next Presidential election, ^propose briefly to 
allude to those changes, which circumstances have produced, 
in the Democratic party. 

The sudden rise of the Know-Nothings, and the rapid ex- 
pansion of the Abolition party upon the dissolution of the old 
Whig party, necessarily involved changes in the Democratic 
party. Disaffected and disappointed politicians, together 
with all Us Northern supporters who entertained a feeling of 
sectional hostility to the slave States, seized upon the occasion 
to unite themselves to one or the other of these parties. This 
ordeal, although it weakened the Democratic party for a time, 
purified, by purging it of many of those who had been in 
times past most obnoxious to the conservative portion of its old 
adversaries. Van Buren, against whom the Whig party for 
so long a time contended, deserted the Democrats and arrayed 
himself in the ranks of their enemy ! Thos. H. Benton, long 
the prominent leader in opposition to Mr. Clay and the Whig:?, 
followed the lead of the '• sage of ivinderhook." Francis °P.' 
Blair, the editor of the Washington Globe during the period of 
its most vindictive assaults upon all the best merTand measures 
of the Whig party, is now in close communion with Seward, 
Garsibon, and Greelev, and is co-operating with them in de- 



31 

vising the most effective means of concentrating all the 
enemies of the South in oposition to the Democratic party. 
And Andrew J. Donelson, less known to fame than either of 
those named, though the editor of the Washington Union in 
opposition to the administration of Mr. Fillmore, has not only 
left the Democratic ranks, but is now the candidate for the 
Vice Presidency, upon the ticket with Mr. Fillmore! The 
Democratic party, thus purified, and with its great national 
princij les emblazoned upon its banner, presents itself for the 
approaching struggle. 

1 have thus briefly, and without undue prejudice or partiality, 
defined the present attitude of parties. I have stated facts 
only, leaving candid minds to draw the inferences. 

I have only to add in this connection, the conviction upon 
my own mind, that old Clay Whigs cannot, without to some 
extent abandoning their old principles, refuse to accord their 
support to the Democratic party, if a true man is nominated 
for the oflice of President ; and that, in opposing the Van 
Burens, the Bentons, the Blairs, and the Donelsons, they will 
stand precisely where they stood of old, when battling against 
these same men under the lead of the noble and gallant Clay ! 



CHAPTER VI. 




I know 0?) ly one safe rule in all the vicissitudes of human life, 
public anl piioatc, ami that is conscientiously to satis ft/ ourselves 
of what is rigfct, and firmly and undcoialivghj to pursue it, under 
all circumstances, con /id lug in the great Ruler of the Universe, 
for ultimate success. — Henry Clav. 

These noble words were uttered by Henry Clay in the 
darkest and gloomiest period of his political life. They are 
words which should sink deep into the hearts of all who hon- 
ored him while living, and who still cherish the recollection of 
his greatness and of his patriotism. The old Whig party, 



32 

as a political organization, has perished by the hands of its own 
children — it has fallen a victim to Abolitionism, and a lust for 
the spoils of power. The old followers of Mr. Clay, who still 
remain faithful to his principles — the remnant of that once for- 
midable party, of which he was for so many years the recog- 
nized head— must either remain inglorious spectators of the 
great struggle which is approaching, and upon the result of 
which may depetid the perpetuity of our great confederacy, or, 
in obedience to the injunction of their departed leader, " satisfy 
themselves of what is right" and throw the weight of their in- 
fluence wherever t^ey conscientiously believe it will be most 
conducive to the welhire and happiness of the people, and to 
the perpetuity of our institutions. Weak as they admittedly 
are, in a party sense, they are powerful in their native honesty 
and indomitable patriotism. 

What is now the particular line of duty for old Whigs to 
adopt, in reference to the parties which are arrayed for the 
present strugule ? The questions to be decided are well known, 
and the principles of these parties are clearly defined. Let us 
take counsel from the teachings of our old leader, and see if he 
has not left upon the record some lessons which may be useful 
to us in the determination of this question. Mr. Clay, in his 
great speech in the United States Senate, on the subject of 
Abolitionism, said : 

"Sir, I am not in the habit of speaking lightly of the possi- 
bility of disolving this happy Union. The Senate knew that I 
have deprecated allusion?, on ordinary occasions, to that dread- 
ful event. The country will testify that, if there be any thing 
in the history of my public career worthy of recollection, it ia 
the truth and sincerity of my ardent devotion to its lasting pre- 
servation. But. we should be false in our allegiance to it, if we 
did not discriminate between the imaginary and real dangers 
by which it may be assailed. Abolitionism snould no longer be 
rcgardtd as an mu, giuary danger. The Abolitionists, let me 
suppose, succeed in their present aim, of uniting the inhabi- 
tants of the free States, as one man, against the inhabitants of 
the slave States. Uiiioii on one side will beget union on the 
other; and this process of reciprocal consolidation, will be at- 
tended with all the violent prejudices, embittered passions, 
and implacable animosities which ever degraded, or delormed 
human nature. * * * One section will stand in 
menacing and hostile array against the other. The collision 
of opinion will be quickly followed by the clash of arm?;. I will 
not attempt to describe scenes which now happily lie concealed 
from our view. Abolitionists themselves would shrink back in 
dismay and horror at the contemplation of desolated fields, 



33 

conflagrated cities, murdered inhabitants, and the overthrow of 
the farest fabric of human government that ever rose to ani- 
mate the hopes of civilized man." 

When these words fell from the lips of the great orator, Ab- 
olitionism had not twenty representatives on the lloor of Con- 
gress. And yet, he declares that "Abolitionism should be nolong- 
cr regarded as an imaginary evil. " What would be his lan- 
guage now, if he could rise from his grave and, entering that 
Hall where are assembled the Representatives of the people of 
this great Confederacy, he should behold the chair which he 
had occupied as presiding officer, now tilled by an avowed Ab- 
olitionist — chosen to that high position by Abolition votes ? In 
the ranks of that foul party he would find the great body of 
those, who, under his teachings, had been members of the great 
Whig family. But he has not left us in doubt as to the manner 
in which, as patriots, we should act in such a contingency. As 
•if his far-seeing mind beheld in the distant future the occur- 
rence of such a calamity, he said : 

" Whenever the Whig party shall become merged into a 
miserable sectional Abolition party, 1 WILL RENOUNCE IT 
FOREVER, and in the future act with that party, REGARD- 
LESS OP ITS NAME, which stands by the Constitution and 
the Union. " 

Who can doubt where Ci,ay would now stand, if he were liv- 
ing ? Has not that period arrived which his prophetic vision 
seemed to behold in the future — when his old party has been 
merged into Abolitionism ? 

The first blow that , was struck at the integrity of the Whig 
party was directed by Abolitionism. It insidiously wound itself 
like a serpent around its victim, and all of the old vitality that 
was left in its system was crushed out by the new party, 
which boasts that it "arose upon its ruins." What honest and true 
Whig heart will not beat responsive to every thought — every 
sentiment — every word of the following letter written by a son 
of Henry Clay, to a Democratic Club in New York? 

Ashland, Jan. 3, 1856. 
Gentlemen: * I find myself standing amid 

the ruins of a great party which was endeared to me by a thou- 
sand ties of education, of association and memory. That party 
has no longer an organized existence — destroyed, I verily believe, 
by treason to its principles in its own ranks. Thousands in the 
land deplore with me its destruction, and are now, as lam, anx- 
iously looking for the right path to follow, and the true party 
to which to attach themselves. * * I am not 

presumptuous enough to desire to intrude upon your notice the 
3 



34 

political ideas of an individual so humble as myself, but of this, 
gentlemen, you may be assured, that any party which in good 
faith puts forth its banner inscribed the Union and ihe Consti- 
tution at all risks, and all hazards — which proclaims itself to 
be in favor of maintaining with equal justice, the institutions 
of every State and section, allowing the citizens of each to reg- 
ulate their domestic concerns, according to their own views of 
their own happiness and interest, and ivhick is opposed to all 
bigotry and fanaticism, religious or civil, will have my cordial 
sympathy — no matter under what name it may hi arrayed. 
With great respect, your obedient servant, 

James B. Clay. 

This letter breathes a true and noble spirit. It evinces that 
patriotic regard for the welfare of the country which is a char- 
acteristic of the remnant of that stern old party to which he so 
feelingly refers. But we are admonished by Henry Clay, that 
in a condition of the country like the present, all patriots 
should unite to together in one great party, irrespective of all 
former differences, in opposition to Abolitionism. He was a 
party man, but with him all questions of a personal or party 
nature were made to succumb to the higher incentives of pat- 
riotism. He was a party leader ; but whenever the institutions 
of his country should become imperiled, he would, if necessary, 
yield the proud position of commander of his own host, enter 
as a private in the ranks of that party which presented the 
most formidable barrier to the aggressions of Abolitionism, and 
there do battle for the security and perpetuity of the Republic. 
But his lessons of wisdom stop not here. His teachings leave 
no doubt upon the minds of those who have studied hh princi- 
ples as to which party he would have attached himself in a 
conjuncture like the present. You may search the records of 
his whole ljfe, public and private, from the period we "first read 
of him as the" mill boy of the slashes," to the last moment of 
his eventful career, and you will not find a single sentiment, 
or thought, or word, or syllable in unison with a distinctive 
principle of the Know-Nothing party. Mr. Clay was open, 
bold, and manly in the enunciation of his sentiments. He ad- 
dressed the reason and the understanding, but never the passions 
or the fanaticism of the people. He would direct the energies 
of his mighty mind to soothe and allay the bitterness of con- 
tending sects and sections, but never did he prostitute the 
powers of his intellect towards arousing sectarian or sectional 
bitterness. He has not only lelt this negative testimony 
against the principles which lie at the foundation of Know- 
Nothingism, but his recorded opinions furnish positive and spe- 



35 

cific evidence of that opposition. Mr. Clay was born, and lived 
and died a Protestant. It was the faith of his fathers, and he 
breathed his last breath of life under the ministrations of a 
Protestant clergyman. But still he believed that others might 
differ with him in religious opinions and be patriots. Who can 
read the following letter and believe that Henry Clay, if he 
were living, would sanction the religious intolerance ofKnow- 
Nothingism ? 

Washington, March 23, 1850. 

Dear Sir : — I have received and attentively perused the 
letter which at the instance of the President and faculty of the 
University of the Notre Dame Ju Lac, you addressed to me the 
4th inst. In that letter they have done me the honor to ex- 
press their approbation of a speech of mine in the Senate of 
the United States, the objects of which was to heal all differ- 
ences, and amicably to adjust all controversies arising out of 
the existence of slavery in the United States. Such testimo- 
ny, proceeding from a highly respectable body of gentlemen, 
retired from the world, and regarding justly the interests which 
belong to another and future state of existence as paramount 
to all others, affords me no inexpressible degree of satisfaction. 

Nor is this at all diminished by the fact that we happen to 
profess different religious creeds; foi I have never believed that 
that of " the CaUiolics was anti- American and hostile to civil 
and religious liberty" On the contrary, I have with great 
pleasure, and with sincere conviction, on several public occa- 
sions, borne testimony to my perfect persuasion that Catholics 
were as much devoted, to civil liberty, and as much animated by 
patriotism as those who belong to the Protestant creed. 

1 am not surprised that in the seclusion of those whom you 
represent, great solicitude should be felt for the safety and pre- 
servation of that Union, which is our surest guarantee of peace, 
order, liberty and public happiness. I hope and believe the 
dangers which appeared to threaten it have diminished ; but 
there is still great occasion for the exercise of a spirit of concord 
mutual concession and harmony. 

I request you to present to the President and Faculty, as- 
surances of my respectful acknowledgment, and accept your- 
self those of your respectful and obedient servant, 

H. Clay. 

Nor is this all the testimony he has left upon the record of 
his life. His mighty intellectual efforts in the cause of South 
American emancipation, were alone sufficient to surround his 
name with a halo of glory. In one of his greatest speeches, 



36 

delivered in the Senate of the United States, upon this subject, 
he says : 

"With regard to their superstition — they worship the same God 
with us. Their prayers are offered up in their temples, to the 
same Redeemer whose intercession we expect to save us. NOR 
IS THERR ANYTHING IN THE CATHOLIC RELIGION 
UNFAVORABLE TO FREEDOM. ALL religions united 
with Government arc more or less inimical to liberty — all SEP- 
ARATED from Government are compatible with liberty. ," 

The last sentence of the above extract, deserves and should 
receive the calm attention of every true Christian, who cherish- 
es in his heart a love of liberty. Mr. Clay spoke from the 
teachings of history. He had read of the bitter fruits of re- 
ligious animosities in the past ; he had seen that persecution 
begets persecution, and that the purity of religion is destroyed 
when party politicians attempt to prostitute it to their own self- 
ish purpose. He knew that religious fanaticism, when wield- 
ing the powers of government, was never satisfied with any- 
thing short of the blood of its victim, and he had witnessed in 
our own happy land the fruits of religious toleration, where 
every man by the constitution of the country-could worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience. Upon every 
occasion during Mr. Clay's entire political life, when it became 
necessary to express his opinions upon the influence exercised 
upon public liberty, by religious sects, he maintained undevi- 
atingly the same opinions. He believed, with Mr. Jefferson, 
that, no form of Christian worship was incompatible with liberty, 
so long as its discussion was confined to the pulpit. Separated 
from politics and parties and government, he believed, that all 
religions were compatible with the highest degree of freedom. 
That he had no fear that the Pope of Rome would invade the 
liberties of the Republic, is farther established in his speech in 
the United States Senate in 1825, when he said : 

" I think the honorable gentleman from Virginia does great 
injustice to the Catholic religion in specifying that as one of the 
leading causes of the decline of Spain. It is a religion entitled 
to great respect ; and there is nothing in its character incompati- 
ble with, the highest degree of national prosperity. Is not France, 
the most polished, in many other respects the most distin- 
guished, State of Christendom, Catholic ? Is not Flanders, the 
most populous part of Europe, also Catholic? Are the Cath- 
olic parts of Switzerland and of Germany less prosperous than 
those which are Protestant?" 

Let us turn now to that only remaining distinctive principle 
of Know-Nothingism, which demands the political proscription 
of foreign born citizens. In his speech in the Senate of the 



37 

United States,on the American system, Mr. Clay gave utterance 
to the following language : 

" The honest, patient, industrious German, readily unites with 
our people, establishes himself on some of our fat. lands, fills his 
capacious barns, and enjoys in tranquility the abundant fruits 
which his diligence gathers around him, always ready to fly to 
the standard of his adopted country, or of its laws, when called 
by duties of patriotism. 

u The gay, the versatile, the philosophical Frenchman, accom- 
modating himself cheerfully to all the vicissitudes of life, incor- 
porates himself without. difficulty in our society. 

" But of all the foreigners, none amalgamate themselves so 
quickly with our people as the Natives of the Emerald Isle. 
In some of the visions which have passed through my imagina- 
tion, Ihave supposed that Ireland was originally part and par- 
cel of this continent, and that by some extraordinary convul- 
sion of nature, it was torn from America, and, drifting across 
the ocean, was placed in the unfortunate vicinity of Great 
Britain. 

" The same open-heartedness, the same generous hospitality, 
the same careless and uncalculating indifference about human 
life, characterise the inhabitants of both countries. Kentucky 
has sometimes been called the Ireland of America. And I have 
no doubt that if the current of emigration were reversed, and 
set from America upon the shores of Europe, every American 
emigrant to Ireland would there find, as every Irish emigrant 
here finds, a hearty welcome, and a happy home." 

I appeal to those who were once the sincere followers of Mr. 
Clay, upon conviction of the soundness of his principles — no 
matter what may be their present party associations- to ponder 
well these lessons which he has left as a rich legacy to his 
countrymen. See how well his principles and opinions accord 
with the genius of our free institutions! Consider them atten- 
tively, and then imagine (if you can conceive a spectacle so 
humiliating) that you see him entering aKnow-Nothing Lodge 
to engraft himself into that order ! Imagine that you behold 
him standing with form erect and majestic mien, to take the 
required oaths necessary to constitute him a member of the 
new American party ! Imagine that you hear read to him the 
words of the oath which he is invited to take : 

" You (Henry Clay) promise and declare 'that you will, when 
elected to any office, remove all foreigners, aliens or Roman Cath- 
olics from office; that you will not appoint any such to office; 
and this you promise and declare on your honor as an American, 
to sustain and abide by, wit/tout any hesitation or mental reserva- 
tion whatever — SO HELP YOU GOD and keep you steadfast ! 



38 

* * * You furthermore promise and declare you 
will, not vote nor give your influence for any man for any office 
in the gift, of the people unless he be an American-born citizen, 
in favor of American-born citizens ruling America, nor if he be 
a Roman Catholic ; that you will not, under any circumstan- 
ces, expose the name of any member of this order, nor revud the 
existence of such an organization; and that you will ever seek the 
political advancement of those men who are good and true mem- 
bers of this order! " 

Henry Clay take such an oath as this ! He who declared 
that foreign-born citizens " were always ready to jiy to the stand- 
ard of their adopted country, or of its laws, when called by duty 
or patriotism" swear that he would proscribe those men from 
all public employment, no matter what might have been their 
services or their merits! He who had expressed his "sincere 
conviction on many occasions that Catholics were as much de- 
voted to civil liberty, and as much animated by pah iotism as those 
who profess the Protestant creed," call God to witness, that he 
would exert all his influence to prevent these same Catholics 
from holding any office under the Government, even though 
their ancestors may have shed their blood, and with their lives 
sealed their devotion to liberty in the revolution which secured 
our independence ! 

Never! never would Henry Clay have subscribed to such 
an oath! It would have amounted to a recantation of every 
great principle of his life. It would have annihilated the foun- 
dation upon which the superstructure of his fame had been 
erected. It would have broken the charm which lingers about 
his name as the great apostle of human liberty. The famed 
advocate of South American regeneration would have dwin- 
dled down into the dimensions of a sectarian politician. In 
short, Henrv Clay would have been no longer the HENRY 
CLAY of history — no longer the Henry Clay who still lives in 
the hearts of his countrymen, and in the admiration and respect 
of the world. 

My object in grouping together these records of the opinions 
and sentiments of this great man, is, that we may take counsel 
from his teachings. He has told us what he would regard as 
his duty if the Whig party of the North should become Aboli- 
tionized— he would leave it. We are not called upon to leave 
the Whig party; for, by the treachery of those we trusted, it 
no longer exists. He has told us that in a conjuncture like the 
present he would throw the weighi of his intluenoe with that 
party most capable of resisting the monster of Abolitionism — 
and he has indicated his devotion to the principles of civil and 
religious liberty. We trust that his lessons of wisdom and 



39 

patriotism may not be lost upon those who claim to be his fol- 
lowers anil disciples. 

But it is fair to presume that Mr. Ci,ay was not opposed to 
" Americans ruling America. " There breathes not a citizen of 
the Republic, from the wilds of Oregon to the snow-clad moun- 
tains of Maine, who is not in favor of " Americans ruling 
America." No American, be he native or foreign-born, has 
ever expressed a wish that any other than " Americans should 
rule America " None but Americans ever have ruled America 
since our forefathers wrested their libei ties from a foreign 
tyrant, and it is the fervent prayer of every true patriot, that 
none but American citizens ever shall rule the proud Republic 
of America. The PEOPLE of America arc the rulers of 
America, and are the only rulers recognised by the Constitution 
and Laws of our country ! 

After a calm survey of the present attitude of parties, I am 
more and more confirmed in the opinion that old line Whigs 
should confer their support upon the candidates of the Demo- 
cratic party in the approaching contest, under the conviction 
that it interposes the only barrier to the triumph of Abolition- 
ism, liut by this course it should not be considered that Whigs 
are committed to act in future with that party, unless upon a 
settled conviction of its propriety. \n co-operating with the 
Democratic party now, Whigs are actuated by a high sense of 
duty, in view of an important crisis — they can resume their an 
cient organization, or unite with any other, without inconsis- 
tency, and without incurring the reproaches of those with 
whom they only profess to act for a special purpose and on a 
single occasion. 

In adopttng this course, the satisfaction we derive from the 
faithful performance of a patriotic duty is enhanced by the fact, 
that we are violating no principle that we have ever professed, 
but that we are acting in obedience to the teachings of that 
great and good man who may be said to have been the father 
of the Whig party. 

Note — My attention has been directed to on article in ihe Gazette, con- 
ce ning my unpretending " Suggestions and Reflections, ' conceited and ex- 
ecuted in that flowery a id poelicai style, peculiar to Know Nothing litera- 
tme. The points o| the argument, so far as I have been able t > extract 
them from the immense superfluity of verb age, in which they are shrouded, 
are Is - That Mr. Clay, during his life, was a badly abus:d man; 2d. 
That if living, he would not, in the p e6ent "state of parties,' cooperate 
wiih th • Democratic pary, and t hut he w< uld be found in he ranks, of the 
Know-No hings; id 3d. That all old Clay Whigs who differ with th- Qnzette. 
upon these points, were «■ it her hypocrit s in the past, or t re so now. It is 
clear that the editors of i he Gazette, however w, 11 versed they n ay be in tho 
pious teac.iugo of our holy religion, t_e sufferings of the saints, a^d the ter- 



40 



f*«£* i M ^^^«j-g* <he character, nor read 
'essmg ro shie'd his reputat on f rom ,hp',J '^? WOU,d nof > wi > ^ P^- 

a greater**, them J, by Z 211 ^ TttT'l'- ^ P ^ h ^ u »^ 
deny those great prin- -iple. of civil and 1 1"°^ l T g * $*l ° L " Y WOU,d 
he so ehquently defended-the adVocaVv of ^ I Y ' wh,ch th 0ll g h lif e 
to fan renown, and which may be reaarZd ,-Th ? ^ W Sa " h ***** 
winch th, superstructure of his g ea f has b n J^ *fe?W»M "P™ 
do a I concerned the justice to publish the *Ll — '1, W ' U tbe Ga * ei * 
pr.cedes this note ! . teaching; f Mr. Clay," which 



CHAPTER Vlf. 



^— ^b/ti^^if ° , ,he A r rican ^ 

Philadelphia in 1855 So f^ a ?Lt n '° n ' Which met in 

the Democratic nartv , d ; announcement relates to 

as it may have served J P y rul,oulo » s . "<*!« in so far 

party ,,"^2^1^ "Wjb£. of that 
tablishing new. poiiScaUsfneiffi dbam ! on '"S '"e.r old, and es . 
party, the ungenerous boaT " Z ,.*"' *S?T* *« ™»S 
American party did establish its" f „ p „,r the rulnt 'f he 
was, in its essential element „„„>;£ "' ol ,vl 'at 

that ever perished by the h™i f ,f mos f Patriotic parties 
ed. Had this new pX contend v tr™ J" !. Vhom i( '™<- 
elaration, that the ^gpartynadb^l fl th ,he Sim ^ tle " 
reverses, as to render fmiCa i afempts of^ P ;° Sl ? ted ^ h * 

wbde the «^5s^j»aa^ 



41 

it would not have been regarded by old Whigs as cause for 
serious complaint. 

But, not satisfied with simply abandoning the Whig organi- 
zation, for one whose principles were more attractive, or which 
promised a more speedy reward for partisan services, they add 
insult to unkindness by intimating that they have been impell- 
ed thereto on account of the "obnoxious acts and violated 
pledges'" of that very old Whig party, whose fortunes and des- 
tiny they themselves had in a grpat measure shaped. What, 
let me ask, were those " obnoxious acts" and " violated 
pledges" which thus enkindle the patriotic bosoms of these 
politico-religious reformers ? It is not only unjust to make 
vague and uncertain charges against those with whom we may 
differ in opinion, but it is illiberal, unmanly, and ungenerous, 
when the party assailed is rendered by misfortune incapable of 
defence. That the Whig party may have committed many 
errors during its long and eventful career, may, without dis- 
paragement, be readily admitted — for to err is human — but 
that its purposes were patriotic, and its measures of policy 
conservative and national, and in strict accord with the great 
and fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, is es- 
tablished by the record upon every page of its history. Its le- 
gitimate aims have been sometimes perverted to suit the self- 
ish purposes of political adventurers ; but the foundation upon 
which it was built was sound, and the great leaders, who may 
be said for so many years to have ruled its destiny, and to 
have been identified with its fortunes, have left behind them 
names which will ever be identified with the glory of the 
Republic. 

The American party was not content, however, with the 
announcement that it had risen upon the ruins of the Whig 
party. They add thereto the boast that it had established 
itself in spite of the opposition of that party. Nay, more. They 
assail the Whig party in the grave to which their own act has 
consigned it — and ask that they may not be held responsible 
for its obnoxious acts and violated pledges ! And who are those 
who evince such alacrity in relieving themselves from the 
odium of these obnoxious acts and violated pledges ? Why, 
they are chiefly the recipients of the honors, and the trusted 
leaders of that very party which they so wantonly assail. 

Many old Whigs, deceived by the appearance of their old 
leaders in the ranks of the Know-Nothing party, have imagined 
that " American" was but a new name for the old party to 
which they had been all their lives attached; while in truth (as 
they virtually declare in their platform) it rests its claims to 
the confidence of the nation, upon its abandonment and repudi- 



42 

atioa of old Whig principles. Conscientious Whigs who still 
cherish a regard for the principles of their old party, and their 
old leader, should consider well before leaping the abyss which 
divides them from those who proudly boast that they have 
arisen upon the ruins — in spite of the opposition — and free from 
responsibility for the obnoxious acts and violated pledges of the 
old Clay party ! 

Thu-; insultingly repelled by the American party, and with- 
out a political organization, each Whig is left to determine for 
himself the proper course for him to pursue in the present 
emergency. Nor should we be deterred from the performance 
of this duty by the unmeaning epithets and invectives of those 
who have deserted our ranks, and have established themselves 
as leaders of another party. What right have they to claim 
our co-operation with, or our sympathy in, the fortunes of a 
party whose success would be our condemnation ? What right 
have they to denominate us as traitors, because, in the exer- 
cise of the prerogatives of freemen, we elect to attach our- 
selves to another party, which has stronger claims upon our 
confidence? What right have they to charge us with hypoc- 
risy in the past, because, in view of a great impending evil, 
we conclude to combine our influence with that party, which is 
alone capable of successfully averting it? 

Traitors to what, and to whom? To the Know- Nothing 
party ? 

That party proclaims that it has arisen in spite of the oppo- 
sit on of the old Whig party, and sure'y it w'll not be claimed 
that we owe allegiance to a party to which we never belonged. 

Are we traitors to the Whig party? 

You say truly, that it is dead, and that you have planted 
yourselves upon its ruins. How can we be traitors to that 
which does not exist? 

Are we traitors to those old Whig leaders, who are now the 
leaders of the American party ? 

Except as the exponents of our principles, we owed them 
no allegiance, and they have not only abandoned those princi- 
ples in the organization of their new party, but they claim ex- 
emption from all responsibility for the obnoxious acts and vio- 
lated pledges of the old Whig party. 

Do the lvnow-Nothings charge us with being traitors to our 
old Whig principles? 

As well might Arnold, when he deserted the flasr of his coun- 
try on account of what he declared to be the " obnoxious acts 
and violated pledges" of our revolutionary fathers, have 
charged treason upon the faithful soldiers who would not fol- 
low him into the camp of the enemy. Every true-hearted old 



'43 

Whig is proud of his old party, and doe3 not blush to defend 
its principles ; while they beg for quarters, on account ol their 
past misdeeds, and ask to be relieved from the responsibility of 
their former " obnoxious acts and violated pledge.-." But a 
truce to such unprofitable discussions! They have preferred to 
abandon their party, and to attach themselves to another ; from 
whatever motive, whether patriotic or otherwise, it is not our 
province to determine. They had a right to do so. We have an 
equal right to refuse to follow. Nay, more — if we believe their 
doctrines to be obnoxious to the principles of free government, 
and freedom of religious opinion, we would be wanting in the 
essential duties of good citizens, if we abstained from the ex- 
pression of that conviction. 

No ! We owe allegiance to our country onlu ; and we will be 
traitors indeed, if we suffer ourselves to be deterred from the 
faithful performance of our duty as citizens, by idle charges of 
inconsistency, or unmeaning epithets uttered by those who 
only exhibit their bad taste and bad cause, by resorting to such 
puerile weapons The wreck and ruin of our old party left 
us alone in the midst ol the political elements, which were war- 
ring around us. Some of us may have inclined to one side, 
and others to another ; but we have thereby incurred no obli- 
gation to any. Many of us have occupied a position of neu- 
trality, awaiting the development of events, which should deter- 
mine us as to our future course. It is too late now to accom- 
plish any good, in the present crisis, by a re-organization of the 
Whig party with a view to separate action. The period has< 
arrived when we must take a position for the conflict with one 
or the other parties now organized, or be inactive spectators 
of one of the most stupendous struggles that has ever agita- 
ted the Republic. 

It is a struggle in which a great Northern party has arrayed 
itself upon a sectional issue, involving in its consequences all 
that the South holds dear. It is a struggle upon their part to 
filch from the Southern States those constitutional rights, which 
she cannot surrender without dishonor, disgrace, and ruin ! It 
is a struggle on their pari to accomplish that which, if success- 
ful, will make this confederacy of States as prolific of evil in 
the future, as it has been fruitful of blessings in the past. On 
our side it will be a struggle to maintain and defend those 
equal rights, which are dearer to us than the Union itself. If 
we, in the Southern States, are united, the victory is easy and 
sure, for there is a strong conservative element in the North, 
upon which we may rely with unwavering confidence ; but if, 
on the other hand, we sutler ourselves to be divided, no politi- 
cal seer can foretell the result and its consequences. 



44 



One fact is startlingly apparent. If there occurs such a di- 
version in the South in opposition to the National Democratic 
candidate, as will prevent a choice in the Electoral College, the 
duty of electing a President of the United States will devolve 
upon the same House of Representatives which elected the Black 
Republican, Banks, Speaker! ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Response to the Patriot— The question at issue— Abolitionism of the Philadelphia Conven- 
tion—Testimony of S\>6taern Delegates— (xov. Gall and others retires from the Con- 
vention — Pre jent platform a fraud— Summing up— Know Nothing party — Sectarian bu'. not 
National— The Patriot as a teacher— Its inconsistency— Abolitionism the great question of 
the day. 

I have read with much care and attention the rejoinder of 
the Patriot to the reply of an Old Clay Whig; and I have no 
hesitation in admitting the ability with which it has grouped 
together the strong points in its argumenf, and the ingenuity 
evinced in making those points available to its main purpose. 
The article in question furnishes additional testimony to the 
truth of my declaration, that in the Patriot, old line Whigs " had 
a ^skilful, able, and accomplished adversary. " I beg the edi- 
tor's of that paper to consider, however, that the admission on 
my part of the " distinguished ability with which the Patriot 
had been conducted," wasnot^designed^as a personal compliment 
to them. The writer of these; articles is certainly under no ob- 
ligations, from any motives of courtesy due to the editors, to 
" wreath his instrument in the flowers of compliments. " But, 
in assuming my self-imposed task, my purpose was to deal in 
facts — stubborn, undeniable, incontrovertible truths ! In my 
estimate of the Patriot, I merely echoed the general sentiment 
of its friends as well as its adversaries, that it occupied a high 
ground as the exponent of Southern Americanism. On as- 
suming new relations to anew party, and abandoning the prin- 
ciples of the Whig party, it had frankly repudiated even the 
name of " Whig. " In short, that it was an adversary to be 
dreaded, was an undoubted, existing" fact," with which Anti- 
Know-Nothing-Whigs had to grapple. It was a fact, the ex- 
istence of which I was not inclined to withhold, even although 



45 

its enunciation might convey an incidental compliment where 
no such courtesy was either deserved or intended. Even the 
" beggar in his rags," or the " cripple upon his crutch," has too 
much self-respect to bestow personal compliments upon the 
flippant coxcomb who flaunts in his face his poverty or his mis- 
fortunes. My plain, unvarnished communications are not, it 
is true, built upon tbal; ornate style of literary architecture 
which embellishes the columns of the Patriot, but upon the in- 
destructible foundation of truth— plain truth, and nothing but 
the truth! While, therefore, I concede to the Patriot, fluency 
and ingenuity in the management of its case, [ submit to the 
intelligent reader whether my facts have not been met by errors 
and evasions — my arguments by declamation — and my reasona- 
ble deductions by flowers of rhetoric ! In addressing the public 
under the appellative of an " Old Clay Whig," I have divested 
myself of my individuality, and have spoken in the name of 
that grand old party, which, under the lead of the noble Clay, 
attained to greatness only to perish at his death, under the re- 
peated blows of old Abolitionism, and modern Know-Nothing- 
ism. Yes, our old Whig party is dead— yet it lives in the re- 
spect of its ancient foes, and in the affections of its old adhe- 
rents, who will not affiliate with either of those elements which 
consigned it to an untimely grave. Having said this much by 
way of introduction and explanation, I will proceed to con- 
sider 

THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE. 

I declare as facts — 

1st. That the Philadelphia Know-Nothing Convention was 
compounded of discordant elements. 

2d. That the majority was unsound upon the slavery ques- 
tion; and, 

3d. I assumed that the nomination of Messrs. Fillmore and 
Donelson was acquiesced in by that majority for the purpose 
of preventing the Southern members of the party from forming 
any other political connection, having for its object a combi- 
nation of the Southern strength in the Presidential election. 

The Patriot denies the facts and the inference, and declares 
that the Philadelphia Convention " was as pure a body of na- 
tional patriots as ever assembled in this country" and " that the 
majority was sound upon the slavery question." 

I must confess in the outset that I cannot withhold the ex- 
pression of my astonishment, in view of the flood of testimony 
which has been furnished on the subject, that the Patriot can 
still maintain positions so untenable and so utterly irreconcil- 
able, with all that has been written, published or spoken by 



46 

cither friends or enemies. When I furnished testimony from 
the record of its own members, th^n and still high in the csibiia- 
tion and regard, of the American party, showing the turbulent, 
vindictive and discordant nature of the proceedings of the Phil- 
adelphia Convention, the Patriot replies that it is not fair to rely 
upon "exaggerated reports written under excitement.'''' That 
those reports were written "under excitement," I have no 
doubt; but were not all the Southern delegates excited under 
the same sense of wrong ? If the public is not allowed to listen 
to reports made by members who were " excited, " it. will be 
equivalent to the' utter extinction of all knowledge ; for in a Con- 
vention WHERE IT WAS NECESSARY TO GUARD THE SPEAKERS FROM 
PERSONAL VIOLENCE BY SURROUNDING THEM WITH A WALL OF THEIR 

colleagues, it is fair to presume that all were deeply excited. 
But what right has the Patriot to assume that the reports 
were "exaggerated?" Have any others appeared giving a 
conflicting version? It is important to bear in mind that the 
subject which produced all this excitement was the direct, 

NAKED QUESTION OF AlIOLITIONISM, WITHOUT ANY ADMIXTURE, Or 

any ether disturbing element. Let us now briefly examine the 
records to discover which side of this issue had the greatest 
number of adherents. 

THE TESTIMONY. 

In the article to which the Patriot replies it will be remem- 
bered that I founded my argument upon the published report 
o* Southern delegates only. I selected m}' testimony ( with 
the view to avoid any charge of unfairness ) entirely from an 
American Fillmore and Donelson journal, published in Ten- 
nessee, high in the confidence and esteem of its party, and 
whose editor was a participator in, and an eye witness of, all 
that he describes ; and yet, so far from commending my fair- 
ness in this regard, the Patriot says : 

" The Old Clay Whig is wrong to rely on the statements of 
ribald scribblers. It is as unjust to himself as to the American 
party. " 

If I had entertained a doubt as to the correctness of those 
reports, I should not have referred to or relied on them. Truth 
and truth alone, was what I sought; and I submit to the can- 
did reader whether the reports published in the Knoxvilk Whig 
do not correspond with all the contemporaneous accounts 
which were made public by the press. It will be remembered 
that the editor of the Whig in writing out a history of the pro- 
ceedings in reference to the repeal ot the slavery section of the 
platform, says: 

" Various amendments and substitutes were offered and 



47 

SEVERAL TEST VOTES TAKEN, resulting generally in ninety- 
five FAVORING the ABOLITION VIEWS, and seventy- 
five FAVORING THE NATIONAL PARTY." 

Here is a fact from Ike record — the actual vote upon each side 
is given, showing, according to the statement ot a Fillmore and 
Donelson journal, the editor of which was present, a large 
"ABOLITION" majority upon several test votes. I will, how- 
ever, notwithstanding the positive and reliable testimony thus 
furnished, seek corroboration from other sources; and 1 think 
that I can establish my positions from documents published in 
the columns of the Patriot, with its commendation and endorse- 
ment. First, I invite the reader's attention to the following 
extract from the letter of Governor Call, of Florida, published 
in the Patriot of the 10th of April, and heralded by that paper 
as an " important, forcible and lucid exposition, which every 
voter should read." The extract refers to the substitute offer- 
ed for the old platform, and which by its adoption, repealed 
the famous 12th section. It must be borne in mind that the 
"substitute " referred to is now the Platform of the party. Gov. 
Call says : 

"The action of the council on the subject was hasty and in- 
considerate. The substitute was adopted under the appli- 
cation OF THE PREVIOUS QUESTION, WITHOUT DEBATE OR AMEND- 
MENT. Still 1 voted for it, under the hope, that something would 
be done to render it acceptable, FIRMLY RESOLVED, if 

DISAPPOINTED IN THIS HOPE, I WOULD DISSOLVE MY CONNECTION 

with the National Council, and the National Convention. So 
soon as the new platform was adopted, the National Council 
adjourned sine die." 

Here we find that the last act of the National Council, which 
repealed the slavery section of their June platform, was 
so adverse to the Sout/i that Gov. Call declares his determina- 
tion to dissolve his connection with both the Council and Con- 
vention, unless something is done to render it more acceptable ! 
Would the Patriot have us to believe that a minoiili/ could 
force a vote upon a propsition under the operation of tiie pre- 
vious question, and that a minority could absolutely adopt and 
carry that proposition ? — that a minority could so trample up- 
on the rights of the South as to force the Southern representa- 
tives to retire ? But let us examine a little farther into the 
proceeding of this "pure and patriotic"(!) bodv of "National 
Patriots," (!) to discover some other evidences of their attach- 
ment to the South. 1 will again make a witness of Gov. Call, 
who says : 

" On the next day the National Convention met, and its orga- 
nization brought into active conflict ALL THE DISCORDANT 



48 

ELEMENTS of ivhich it was composed. From the State of 
Pennsylvania there were two delegations — one adhering to and 
standing on the principles of the 12th article of the platform 
of 1855, the other overleaping it, and DISREGARDING all its 
provisions. The debate was long and animated, and 
resulted in sustaining and admitting to their scats in the Conven- 
tion the delegation coming in OVER, and disregarding the prin- 
ciples of the \2th article of the Platform of 1855 !" 

We have here not only positive evidence of the overpowering 
influence of the abolition element, but proof that they were 
determined to override every principle of justice, by excluding 
the delegation which stood upon their own platform, and 
receiving others who had repudiated the party. The Knox- 
ville Whig, in its account of this act of the Convention, very 
pointedly says : 

" Even the vile and unprincipled rascals who seceded in 
June last are here, and have been allowed their seats. * * 
They have no right to seats in this body, but THE RUFFIANS 
have the power, and have voted themselves in /" 

It will be seen from the foregoing, that the testimony fur- 
nished by my "excited witnesses" an 1 "ribald writers" cor- 
responds, in every essential particular, with that furnished by 
Gov Call, who makes his statement after weeks of delibera- 
tion. He refers to the same " discordant elements," and the 
same disregard of the principles of the 12th section — the same 
anti-Southern feeling and also furnishes the most indubitable 
testimony to the fact that the abolition element upon all these 
test votes, was triumphant ! The humiliation of the South was 
complete — there seemed no hope left. They had been defeated 
upon every issue, and had been grossly insulted whenever they 
arose to defend their rights. In this unhappy state of affairs 
what was done by the chivalrous representatives of the down- 
trodden South? Let Gov. Call tell the story himself. In the 
letter before referred to he says : 

" On the morning of the 23d of February, / retired from the 
Convention, after a full and frank declaration of the causes and 
motives by which I was actuated. When I retired from the 
Convention the distinguished representative from Alabama, 
Mr. Walker, retired also, and all the delegates from the 
South."* 



* The Patriot in replyto the for-g^iqg ex >ose of thi abolition ten- 
dencies of the P.iila ielphia Convention, instead of frankly admitti g a fact 
so notorious that but few e* en among the most d v ted friends of the Ameri- 
can party pretend to deny or bring itin question, endeavored : o make a per- 
sona! issue with An Old Cla\ Whk',by the prep ?t r us charge t at"come 
ex racts from the 1 tter of Gov. Call were garbled t ;> suit the purpose of the 



49 

What further testimony can be required to establish the cor- 
rectness of my positions, and the utter fallacy of those which 
have been assumed by the Patriot? The abolition majority 
would listen to no compromise; they would accept of no con- 
ce-siuns which did not involve the humiliation of the South. 
Southern members struggled manfully, but in vain, against the 
overwhelming torrent. Seeing that it was hopeless to expect 
any justice at the hands of a ruthless majority, they retired in 
a body, amid the hisses and jeers of the triumphant adherents 
of Abolitionism. 

But the Patriot declares, in the face of this cloud of testimony, 
that the majority of that Convention was " patriotic and na- 
tional," and hv no means " unsound on the question most vital 
to the South !" We have read in history of large armies being* 
beaten and put to flight by much smaller bodies of better dis- 
ciplined and more courageous troops, but if the Patriot is cor- 
rect, the Philadelphia Convention furnishes the first illustration 
in a deliberative assembly of a majority retiring discornfitted, 
beaten, and despairing, and leaving a triumphant and exultant 
minority in -.full possession. Leaving the Patriot to extricate 
itself, if it can, from the absurdity of its position, I invite atten- 
tion to the following extract of a letter published in the Nash- 
ville Banner, from Tuos. H. Clay, giving his version of the 
manner in winch the South was cheated : 



writer." Whether Gov. Call meant what Ae says is not important as touch- 
ing this question, bu that I gave to it the legitimate construction which the 
words and the order in which they are placed would not only justify but 
require, I think n<) o e who reads will doub'. It will be s en that my ar- 
gument was predicted upon the account of the proceedings of the Conven- 
tion furnished by Gov. Call, because it had been endorsed and commended 
by the Patriot. The fact was notorious that a large numb r of the leadino- 
fcoulherners had retired from the Convention, ; nd Gov. Call atnonn- the 
number. In commenting upon this fact, I adopte l his statement as to the 
particulars. The entire sentence from which I made t!.e extract is in the 
following words : 

" On the mo nin? of the 23d of February, I retired from the Convention, 
after a full and (rank declaration of the causes and motives by which I wa3 
actuated. When I retired from the Convention, the distinguished represent- 
ative from Alabama, Mr. Walker, retired also and all the delegates from 
the South, and indeed all conservative men f om the North would ln.ve re- 
tired, but for the hope they entertained hat the disposition of the Convention 
woo d assume a more favorable aspec ." 

I desire to ell '.he special atten'.i n of the reader to an important fact 
■which plainly appers ia the foregoing extract. If I had inserted the whoh 
sentence instea! of extracting only a poition of it, it would have strengthened 
my position an hundre 1 fold. It would have been and is, conclusive, upon 
the principal point at issu in this d scussion. What is that question ] I have 
iusi ted that the majority of the 1 hihdelph a Convention was unsoun 1 upon 
s.h j question most vital to the South, The Patriot denies the correctness of my 
4 



50 

" The design of striking out the 12t'i section of the old plat- 
form was soon made apparent. We, of the Slave States-, 

HAD NOT THE NUMERICAL FORCE IN THE COUNCIL TO PREVENT 

Tins. Bat we said to those delegate^ What guarantee will you 
give us, in lieu of that Section or Resolution ? You say, with 

THAT SECTION IN THE PLATFORM, YOU CANNOT CARRY A SINGLE FREE 

State. Without it or some similar guarantee, do you suppose 
that we of the South, could carry a solitary one ol the Slave 
States?" 

It must be borne in mind that the Southern delegates with- 
drew from the Convention, chiefly because the slavery section 
of their platform had been repealed by the adoption of a substi- 
tute, and a platform which they regarded as inimical to Southern 
rights. Now that same section, unrepealed, still appears upon 
the record — that sam>. substitute, without a solitary umcndmentj 
now stands as the official platform of their party ! But let us see 
what sort of a platform this is, and what n as thought of it by its 



position, and brings forwarl Gov. Call as w tness to justify this denial. If 
tie reader will cousider the above extract entire, which the Patriot ch rges 
me with having g rbled, he cannot fail to p rceive tlia the portion winch I 
did not publish decide? the question against the Pat iot in a wry that can 
leave no donbt upon the mind of >he mos. prejudiced defender ot 'that Con- 
vention Assume to bj true the Patriot's version, ant what do we learn 
from it f 

First, that the Conv nt'.on repealed t' e Slavery section oft eirold plat- 
form by tie adoption of a new one, which Gov. Call regarded as s> ve y 
obnoxious to t.e Souih that he took the extreme method of declaring his 
disa«reement by formally withdrawing from the Convention. He f nh r 
Informs us that not only the eh ire Southern delegation but all the cimserva- 
the men cf the North, would also have teti id uit,h them, but for the hope 
they <■ ntetta ned that by remaining the/ might br ng a out a charge in the 
feeling of the Cor.ventio . Now if the pro etdings were " suind upon thj 
question most vital to the South," why, n .he name o all that is reasonable, 
would Gov. Call and th etitr-3 Sout en delegation be inclined to with- 
draw 1 Or, if the rr ajority was ' patri t c " and " national," what poss ble 
motive could influence all the conservative members f om the North to r< ti e 
fro .. the Convention wilh the repn sentajives of the South T Is anything 
nwe clear than that Gov. Call mans to b unde stood that the proc> eding'a 
of the liiaj riiy had been so offensive lo the South a d to the conservu- 
tves of the North tha' they would all have dlssol ei th ir connection with 
the Convention, but for the hope that ether and better influences might 
pr duce a change] The sequel proved, however, that even this hope was 
fallacious, f r tne Conven ion ref sed to the last to remodel the objection- 
able platlorm, or to reconsider the repeal < f .heir old Slavery section : and 
this platlorm, objectionable as it was, vow stands word for wo> d, arid te ter/or 
letter, us it stood when Governor Call retired from the Gbiwtt i>n ! 

The reader will readily perceive thatny positi n would have been materi- 
ally etr ncthened if I had adopted t e i.'terur tation o' the Patriot, and had 
published" the sentence i ntire, hough at th s mom.nt I had not p rcefVed 
that there was any ambiguity in the phraseology. 



61 

friends. When this substitute was under consideration in tho 
Con* ention — 

" Mr. Sheets of Indiana, said he was willing to accept a 
compromise, but the Twdfth Section must be got rid of; he was 
willing to accept the Washington Platform; for if there was 
anything in it, it was so covered up in verbiage, that a President 
would be elected before the people would find out what it was all 
about. 

" Mr. Sri ANKLAM), of Ky., said he could not, by his vote, sanct'on 
any such attempt to dupe the people. He considered the new Plat- 
form as vague, unsatisfactory, and unmeaning—as a mcretr ck that 
politicians might ride into office at the sacrijiee of principle. He 
could not. therefore, consent to assist in the fraud. 

" Mr. Undmuvood, of Ky., member of CojnsTess from the 
Third District, said that with a view to the conciliation of the 
different conflicting interests, he has bsen willing and anxious 
to compromise any differences where the rights of the South 
were not to be sacrificed. But the new platform he had carefully 
studied, and regarding it, he had come to the same conclusion 
announced by his c tiL-agua. (Mr. Suavklaxd.) He, therefore, 
voted against it." 

SUMMING UP. 

Here then we have a brief outline of the prominent points in 
the history of the Convention, furnished in the main, f-om care- 
fully considered articles published in the Patriot. We see a 
triumphant Abolition majority overriding the national and con- 
servative element, until, stung beyond the point of endurance, 
the minority from the Sout'i retire in a bo Jy from the Convention ! 
It was manifest- that there was an impassible gulf between the 
two sections. They could never bs made to harmonize, for the 
simple reason that the Northern section would not, and the 
Southern section coul I not, comprom.se on the slavery ques- 
tion. As a national party, they ceased to exist from the 
moment the Southern delegates with drew from the Convention. 
The determination of the Northern majority, to affiliate, as a 
body, with the Black Republicans, was then made manifest. 
But it was also clear that if nothing further was done, the 
Southern section of the party would, in self defence, be forced 
to resist the combination, by a like combination with the 
Democratic party in the South. 

I appeal now to the candid, unprejudiced and common sense 
reader, it'it is not fair to conclude that the sole purpose of in- 
viting the Southern delegates back, to nominate Fillmore and 
Donglson, wa,s not, by giving them the candidates of their 



52 

choice, to effect an irreconcilable division in the South ? The 
Northern section of Know-Nothingism never intended to vote 
for Fillmore and Donelson. Their entire proceedings furnish 
proof conclusive, that they were not only in a majority, but 
bitterly hostile to the South. If Mr. Donelson, instead of 
boasting that he owned one hundred negroes, had declared 
that his slaves numbered seven hundred, they would have been 
better satisfied, as it would have furnished for them six hun- 
dred additional reasons why they would not support him. Let 
us now briefly examine the attitude of 

THE PATRIOT AS A TEACHER. 

The Patriot thinks that before deciding not to support the 
onndidatea no nin^ted by this Convention, I should have taken 
council from the Editors of that paper. I did do so. I read 
with avidity the eloquent articles which appeared in the Patriot 
scaicely two short months ago, and they inspired me with new 
ardor in the cause of the South. The resolute determination 
of the Patriot to stand by the Slavery question at all hazards 
and to the last extremity, met my most unqualified approba- 
tion. The solid and dignified Banner, and the enthusiastic and 
versatile Gazette, in vain put forth their efforts to change the 
current of public opinion. The eloquent and truthful appeals 
of the Patriot overrode all opposition, and on the assembling 
of the State Convention it was triumphantly sustained by 
that body. On the 12th of February last, the Patriot in a most 
fprcible articb in opposition to the repeal of the 12th section, 
tells us that — 

" It has been long years since it (Abolitionism) was an 
abstraction. Commencing as a sentiment in the sickly brains 
of a handful of ideal periectionists of the North, what was then" 

A TINY CURRENT, HAS SWOLLEN INTO A MIGHTY TORRENT, THREATENING 

to UNDERMINE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE REPUB- 
LIC, AND BEAR IT AWAY UPON ITS BOSOM, A RUIN AND A WRECK. It 

is too late in the day to think of ignoring a question which has 
grown so strong, that it will force itself to be known and felt, 

* * It HAS BECOME A GREAT, LIVE, EARNEST, 

PRACTICAL QUESTION. It IS WRESTLING WITH THE GOVERNMENT 

FOR ITS VERY LIFE!!" 

These were the patriotic outpourings of the heart, in view of 
an impending calamity. The little brook meandering in t\ 
sequestered valley of the North, had grown into a mighty tor- 
rent, which threatened to sweep away every interposing barrier. 
The Government itself was wrestling for its very life with the 
monster Abolitionism. The Patriot beheld the danger, (accord- 



53 



irr« , "to'Gov. Cai.o) the Convention in Tennessee recognized its 
existence, and all resolved, that, as a party, they would stand 
or fall, sink or swim, survive or perish, with the Slavery sec- 
tion of their platform. But all would not do. The great 
Council of the nation assembled at Philadelphia, and amid the 
glad shouts of triumphant Abolitionism, the repeal of the 12th 
section was accomplished! But they did not stop at this. 
Abolition triumphed in everything — it insulted every national 
man who attempted to interpose, and finally drove every 
Southerner from their Council! Where now do we find the 
Patriot 1 — Defending the action of this Convention, and pro- 
claiming it to" be as pure a body of National patriots as ever 
assembled ! ! But this is not all. The swelling buds, the 
heralds of approaching spring, were just appearing, when the 
Patriot told us that Abolitionism was the great, live, practical 
question that was wrestling with the Government for ITS VERY 
LIFE, and now, almost before those buds have bursted into 
bloom, the Patriot gravely informs its readers that " Black Re- 
publicanism in itself is insignificant and harmless." And that 
it is an " artful trick to attempt to produce the impression that 
Black Republicanism is to be a principal combatant in the great 
tournay of this year." The present attitude of the Patriot is 
painfully inconsistent with that which it occupied in February; 
and it is most clear that it was either endeavoring to create a 
false alarm of danger then, or it is seeking now to lull the pub- 
lic mind into a fatal security. 

There is a point in the article to which this is a reply, that 
requires a passing notice. In making a charge of " flagrant 
treachery " against old Whigs who differ with the editors of 
that paper, the Patriot says : 

" Nor can this conduct be extenuated by quoting from intem- 
perate Americans, that the Whig party was rotten, or corrupt, 
or dead, or liM RUINS. They know these charges to be false. 11 

And in another article it says: "We have never said that 
the Whig party was dead." Not dead and in ruins ? Why it 
has been the theme of almost every Know- Nothing orator and 
newspaper writer of that party for months, that both the old 
parties have perished of their own inherent corruption, and out 
of this mass of impurity, Americanism had emerged as pure and 
as uncont iminated as a vestal. The Whig party not in ruins? 
Why look back to the columns of the Patriot of the 21st of 
February, and read what the editors themselves have said : 

" We are gratified to learn that the Southern members of 
the National American Convention had resovled to stand by 
the 12th section of the platform of last year at all hazards." 

And now turn to that famous section of the June platform, 



54 

which has been the theme of such eloquent commendation, and 
you will find that it declares — 

"XII. The American party having ARISEN UPON THE 
RUINS, and in spite of the opposition OF THE WHIG and 
Democratic parties, cannot be held in any manner responsible 
Jor the obnoxious acts or violated pledges of cither ! " 

Is the Patriot then to be regarded as one of the "intemper- 
ate Americans" whose statements are not to be relied on ? 
Rut, admitting that this constitutes a sufficient plea in extenua- 
tion for newspaper editors and stump orators, surely the Grand 
National Council which deliberately incorporated this declara- 
tion in their platform, will not be excused by the Patriot, on the 
score of " intemperance," or undue excitement. 

CONCLUSION. 

I have thus grouped together a few prominent facts, bearing 
upon the questions in controversy. Whether these facts are 
sufficient to sustain my positions, the reader can decide. 

That the so-called American party in the North is complete- 
ly and entirely abolitionised, no candid man will deny. Mr. 
T. H. Clay tells us in his letter, that they could not carry a sin- 
gle Northern State if they retained the 12th section ; and when 
it is remembered that that section demands nothing more for 
the South than the maintenance of her present acquired rights, 
Southern men can readily understand the strength of that aboli- 
tion feeling, which is conveyed in the announcement of this 
fact. For one, I cannot believe that the monster of Abolition- 
ism, with which the " government two months ago, was strug- 
gling for its very existence," has all at once become so insig- 
nificant, as it is now represented to be by the leaders ot the 
American party ! I distrust the sudden conversion of our 
editors, to the opinion that Black Republicanism, has in a twink- 
ling, grown so feeble and inoxious. I still believe, as did the 
Patriot, and, no doubt, the "American" State Convention, 
which assembled in Nashville in February, that Abolitionism is 
the "great, live, earnest, practical question," which over- 
rides all other questions, and which " cannot be ignoreu." 



55 



CHAPTER IX. 

Editions diFptites fomented T^y Tyrants nnd Ilt , m:ijr- , giiM, for felfl h pnrpr>*e.«— In c ta.ncea 
in the li 8 ory of the pafel — 'I lie It I « miy eon^i"' nces of religious wranellnpa — 'I he French 
>'< v lutinn — Repnty ol the persecution of Catholius — Religion do&',r«ye«!, and the e\i-ienc« 
of n (}• d d"iii 'J- -Abrogation <>t the Pabbnlli — 1 he (Jhnrctes nil closed — Religions freedom 
c>iiulili.-li ed bj o.ujr lore athcts— Pen--, ciuimi ne\ or makes coi.vtits— Ciilholic Priests never 
inLr'.eied iu our Gove, n men t, while Abolittou Piotes'.ai.ts have . 

Having considered the present position of parties in refer- 
ence to what may be properly regarded as the great question 
•of the day, and having shown thai iu view of its overshadow- 
ing importance to the rights and liberties of the South, all oth* 
er subjects of difference should he held in abeyance, in order to 
accomplish a perfect union of the whole South agaiust the dan- 
gtrons encroachments of Abolitionism, I propose now very 
briefly to refer to .some of the most objectionable features in the 
American or Know-Nothing declaration of principles. I pro- 
pose to exhibit also the antagonisms of those principles to the 
great fundamental doctrines of the old Clay party. 

Religious controversies have in all ages been the fruitful im- 
plement of aggrandisement for demagogues and tyrants. When 
you attack the religion of a truly sincere man, you assail that 
which he holds more dear than life itself; and it is on account 
of the strength of this religious sentiment, and the honest con- 
viction of the purity and truth of one's own particular religious 
principles, that it is so easy for aitful and designing men to 
convert this pious faith into a fanatical zeal for the extermina- 
tion of nil other forms of faith than those which we ourselves 
have adopted. On almost every page of the history of the 
past, we learn that blood, and misery, and crime, have follow- 
ed in the footsteps of religious persecution, without being at- 
tended hy one single blessing to mankind. Tyrants have no 
doubt been often actuated by motives of zeal for the propaga- 
tion of their faith in their persecution of opposing sects, but it 
has been more frequently the case that fanaticism has hcen 
merely the instrument by which they sought to accomplish 
their own selfish purposes. The bloody massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, in which sixty thousand Huitienots were murdered 
in cold blond, was planned and ordered by the infamous Cath- 
arine de Modieis, who was not herself either a Catholic or a 
Protest. int, from any sentiment of religion. At one period of 
her life she inclined to Protestaniism, but political considera- 
tions induced her to favor the cause of Catholicism. The 
Huguenots were her enemies in the State ; and to consolidate 



5G 

her power, she conceived it necessary to annihilate them. The 
fanaticism of the Catholics was her only instrument for achiev- 
ing this diaholical assassination. Henry VIII. of England, the 
most formidable of all the enemies of Romish supremacy, was 
actuated by no higher motive than to change the seat of Chris- 
tian temporal power from Rome to London, and to make the 
head of the church the King of England instead of the Pope of 
Rome. In effect, so far as Britain was concerned, he succeeded. 
He caused the Catholics to be beheaded, and was sustained and 
encouraged thereto by the Protestants ; while the Protestants 
who were opposed themselves to the tyranny of his iron will, 
perished at the stake, amid the rejoicings of the Catholics. He 
used the fanaticism of each against the other, and made their 
faith and their mutual hatred the instrument for the accom- 
plishment of his own selfish and bloody purposes. Queen Mary, 
in turn, became the instrument of the Catholics in her persecu- 
tions of those who had adopted the faith of her father; while 
Elizabeth, the great head of Protestantism, signalized her reign 
by the persecutions of her Catholic subjects. Where terrible 
punishments are inflicted upon men for ordinary crimes, their 
fellow-men look on and weep under the influence of pity for 
their misfortunes ; but history teaches us that the most horrible 
tortures inflicted upon those whose only crime consists in their 
religious creed, are regarded by opposing sects with gratifica- 
tion and joy. Elizabeth could command the execution of a 
Catholic priest in front of the prison of Queen Mary, with the 
unworthy purpose of torturing the feelings of the unhappy cap- 
tive by the spectacle, but fanaticism did not recognise the 
bloody act as a wrong. m 

The most fruitful lessons which the pages of history furnish 
upon this subject are to be found in a detail of the causes which 
made the French revolution the most hideous crime that ever 
stained the annals of any nation. Had the French people 
contented themselves with the overthrow of the political des- 
potism under which they had groaned for so man} ages, the 
revolution would not have been degraded by those horrible 
atrocities which made the very name of liberty odious. If they 
had been satisfied with the establishment of rtligious and civil 
freedom, without attempting to destroy the church, liberty 
would have been established and perpetuated. But the ruth- 
less vengeance which at first sought to crush only an objectiona- 
ble form of Christian worship, ended in the overthrow of all 
religious faith. The war upon Catholicism was carried on, not 
by Christians and reformers of other creeds, but to tbtse were 
added all the infidels and Atheists of F?\aice, who gladly availed 
themselves of this popular fury against that particular form of 



57 

worship to strike a fatal blow at Christianity itself. And well 
did the end justify their expectations. Tons of thousands of 
Catholic priests paid the penalty of their devotion with their 
blood, and to be a Catholic was a crime sufficient to send the 
purest citizen to the scaffold. Young girls were sent by do- 
zens to the guillotine for the crime of worshipping the Almighty 
according to the faith their fathers had taught them. At length, 
says Lamartine, "it drew every worship into the proscription of 
Catholicism. " And the representatives of the French nation 
decreed that there was no God but Reason. The churches were 
all closed, the Sabbath was abrogated, and a saturnalia of 
blood, and debauchery, and crime, such as the t world never before 
witnessed, was the result. Lamartine, in his history of the 
Girondists, says : 

" The profanation and devestation of the temples, the disper- 
sion of the faithful, and the imprisonment and martyrdom of 
the priests, was more and more encouraged. The Directors 
of the Departments foi bid the institutions to pronounce the. name of 
God in their tuition to the children of the people. Andre Du- 
mont, in mission at the Department? of the North, wrote to the 
Convention : " I a: rest the priests who permit the Sabbath. I 
cause the cross and the crucifix to disappear. I am in ecstacy 
— intoxicated. In every direction the churches are shut, and 
wadding for cannon is made of the sacred books of the Liturgy. 
All the citizens cry out, ' No more Priests — Equality and Rea- 
son !'" 

The people were avenged by their power to insult what they 
hod so long adored, confounding the Deity himself in their re- 
sentments against his worship. The Commune desired to re- 
place the ceremonies of religion by other spectacles, but sin- 
cerity of purpose was utterly wanting at these fetes. There was 
no adoration at these meetings — no soul at these ceremonies. 
Religions do not spring up in the market-place at the voice of le- 
gislators and demogogucs ! 

The inauguration of this worship took place at the Conven- 
tion. Cuaumette, accompanied by the members of the Com- 
mune, and escorted by a vast crowd, entered the apartment to 
the sounds of music and the chorus of patriotic hymns. He 
conducted by the hand one of the handsomest courtesans of 
Paris, the idol being half covered with a long blue veil. A band 
of prostitutes, her companions, followed, escorted by a group 
of seditious citizens. The foul assemblage entered the hall 
confusedly, and seated themselves on the benches of the depu- 
ties. Cuaumette advanced and raised the veil which covered 
kie courtesan, and her beauty striking the multitude, he ex- 



58 

claimed — "Mortals, recognize no other Divinity than Reason, of 
which I present lo you the loveliest and purest personification." 
At the-e words he bowed and made a semblance of adoration. 
The President of the Convention and the people affected to 
pay a similar worship." 

These were the legitimate and natural consequences of the 
persecution of a particular form ol Christian worship by the 
government. And to the consequent annihilation of all re- 
religinn may be ascribed the fatal excesses which degraded the 
revolution. Their statesmen at length discovered that when 
the people do not believe in the existence of a God, and where 
death is regarded as an eternal sleep, there can be no govern- 
ment. Robespierre, therefore, proposed to the Convention the 
following decree : 

" Art. 1st. The French people recognize the existence of the 
Supreme Being, and the immortality of the soul. 

" Art 2d. They acknowledge that the worship worthy the 
Supreme Being is the practice of the duties of man. " 

But to return to a consideration of this question in our own 
land. Our forefathers, in the formation of this great Republic, 
and in establishing it upon the eternal foundations ot justice 
and truth, profited by the teachings of history, and by the ex- 
perience of their own ancestors. The Puritans, by persecution, 
had been driven to the inhospitable shores of New England — 
the Quakers to Pennsylvania, and the Catholics to Maryland. 
Unitedly they entered upon the great struggle for our indepen- 
dence, and by their joint labors and blood, our liberties were 
achieved. In framing the Constitution — that gieat chart of 
freedom — they incorporated a provision, that " no religious test 
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public 
trust under the United States," and further, that "Congress 
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof " The American party, 
therefore, in their proscription of a. certain religious denomi- 
nation, in addition to other great evils which result therefi om, 
most clearly and palpably violate a cardinal principle of the 
Constitution. In a Republic the people is the sovereign ; and 
when the people deny to a man, or class of men, the rights 
guaranteed to them by the Constitution, it is in effect the de- 
nial of the sovereign to permit the enjoyment of such rights. 
It is the establishment and exercise of a power greater than 
the Constitution. 

But, aside lrom this objection, what good can result from the 
persecution or the political ostracism, of a particular denom- 
ination of Christians ? I appeal to good men and to Christ- 



59 

ians ! Do you purpose thereby to reform what you suppose to 
be their errors ? You will, only add to their zeal andVnthu.-iasm 
for their own religious belief. The more you persecute them, 
the more firmly will they resist all your efforts. Suppose that 
the members of a political party should bind themselves by 
oaths to use their utmost efforts to deprive the members of 
your branch of the Christian church from all "offices or pub- 
lic trust under the United States," — and suppose such a party 
should succeed in yetting control of the Government — would 
you not consider that you were debarred from the exercise of 
your constitutional rights ? And do you not think that, instead 
of weakening, it would strengthen your attachment to your re- 
ligious creed ? But above all, when religious discussions are 
taken from the pulpit and transferred to the grocery, the mar- 
ket-house, and the political arena, it brings religion itstlf into 
disrepute. It is a subject too high and too holy to w be entrust- 
ed to the keeping of grogshop bullies, and bar-room politicians, 
and cannot fail to puffer by the contact. It is the fruitful pa- 
rent of Infidelity and Atheism ; and probably it was a knowl- 
edge of this fact, which induced the American Convention to 
begin, where the French Convention ended, by declaring their 
belief in the existence of a Supreme Being. 

But, why should we wage this bitter war against Catholics? 
Have they not manifested as much alacrity to march to the bat- 
tle-field when their country claimed their services, as any other 
citizens? Did they not spill their blood, in common with the 
blood of the Protestants, in the great struggle for our liberties — 
in our wars with Great Britain and with Mexico? And did 
they not encounter the hardships of Indian warfare, all to win 
for themselves and their posterity a happy home in this land of 
freedom ? And shall we deny to them the privileges which 
they have won by their heroism, and their devotion to liberty, 
because they choose to worship God according to the dictates 
of their own consciences ? 

Do you fear the Pope of Rome? He is only protected in 
his own small dominions by the army of a friendly power. Do 
you fear the influence of.the Catholic clergy in our own gov- 
ernment? Not one holds any rfficc, either in the gilt of the 
people, or the Executive; while Congress is filled with fanati- 
cal anti slavery ministers of other denominations ! Do they 
attempt to coerce, or in any manner to interfere with the gov- 
ernment in the discharge of its duties ? Of the three thousand 
Ministers of the Christian Religion, who impudently, presump- 
tuously aid profanely declared them-elves authorized, in the 
name of Almighty God, to demand of Congress to refrain from 
the performance of an act of simple but long delayed justice 



60 



to the South, NOT ONE was a minister of the Caiholic re- 
ligion ! Patriots shoi.ld pause and consider well before they 
take a step so opposed to the interests of Christianity, to the 
lights of good and honest citizens, to the genius of our institu- 
tions, and to the spirit of the age in which we live. 



CHAPTER X. 

Command of the Almighty — The Bible a^ain't Know-Nothinzisrn— Cond.tion of the Children 
of Iirai-I, compared 10 that of oar forefathers — \mcrija the asylum f>r ihe oppressed — 
Law of Naturalization — Forei Miershave aided 113 in our « ars — Know-N itb.in.ga against La- 
faye te — asainst the Constitution — When they disfranchise Catholics, they will make war 
911 Protestant s^cts — S i>uruiion of Church and State — Should the Constitution be mull- 
Jated V 

" And ifa stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall 
not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you, he shall 
be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him 
as thyself: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. " — Holy 
Bible. 

How admirable is the spirit and sentiment of the foregoing 
command of the Almighty to the Children of Israel ! It was 
addressed to a people who had themselves been but recently 
driven from their homes by the oppressions of the Egyptians, 
amongst whom they had dwelt. It was a commandment to 
those who had tasted the bitterness of persecution, and who 
had been led by Omnipotence into a " land flowing with milk 
and honey." The occasion, too, upon which this mandate was 
enforced, and the time of its promulgation, makes still more 
mpressive the lesson of charity which it inculcates. The Chil- 
dren of Israel had endured all manner of cruelties at the hands 
of those among whom they had lived as strangers; yet when 
they had secured a home of their own in the land given to them 
by the Almighty, they are told by that high power which had 
delivered them, " ifa stranger sojourn with thee in your land, 
ye shall not vex him." Although dwellers in the land of Egypt, 
they had been subjected to the most cruel bondage by the 
Egyptians; yet when they are delivered, they are told that " the 
stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born 
among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself." It was not 
necessary to enforce this command by any argument as to its 



CI 

propriety; for those to whom it was addressed had themselves 
been "strangers in the land of Egypt. " 

There is a striking similarity in the condition of the Children 
of Israel at ihe period alluded to, and that of the founders of our 
Republic, when they were called upon to establish laws for the 
government of the new world. They, too, and their lathers, had 
been driven by wrongs and by oppicssions, to seek for them- 
selves anew home, where,, they would be beyond the reach of 
their persecutors. They profited by the teachings of experi- 
ence, and instead of retaliating upon others the injuries which 
had been heaped upon them, they decreed that liberty to all, 
which they in vain had sought in the land from whence they 
had come. They proclaimed to the whole world in accordance 
with the divine precept, that the stranger who dwelt among 
them should be as one born in their midst, no matter what 
might have been the land of his nativity. 

The proudest boast of the true American, has ever been that 
this Republic offered an asylum for the oppressed of every 
clime and every religion. Our portals have been thrown wide 
open — our invitation has been wafted upon every breeze to every 
land where dwell the victims of tyranny, to ccme and partici- 
pate in the blessings of freedom ; to come all who are " weary 
and heavy laden," and find rest, in the bosom of this land of 
liberty ! To the down trodden million ; to the persecuted re- 
former ; to the fugitive monarch ; to ail of every degree, from 
the cottage to the throne, who seek security from persecution, 
the invitation has been extended, to come and partake of that 
great boon of liberty and equal laws, which has been bequeath- 
ed to us by our revolutionary fathers. The Constitution of 
the Republic is the crown of her sovereign, the people — it is a 
crown more precious, far, than the crowns of jewels and gold 
which encircle the brows of despots. Surely we will not ruth- 
lessly pluck away its brightest gems, to gratify the ambition of 
demagogues, the unfounded prejudices of the ignorant, or the 
intemperate zeal of fanaticism ! 

If the Know-Nothing party had contented itself by a simple 
attempt to change or modify the existing laws upon the subject 
ofnaturalization.it would not have involved any other ques- 
tion than one of mere expediency, on which Whigs may or may 
not have agreed with them, without any abandonment of prin- 
ciple. If the time required for foreigners to remain in the 
country before they can become citizens is too short, amend 
the law in that particular, and extend the term of probation to 
twenty years, or even more, if the interests of the country de- 
mand it. But it should not be attempted to deprive foreign- 
born citizens of the political privileges they have already ac- 



62 



quired, by a compliance with existing laws. Thev are 'i'rili »« 
much entit eel to the enjoyaaea. of all the right o ciU 2 !, a thu 

&Tn' the "oil" 1 ' Tl WS W " 0a '- e ? UizenJ '* *• --"- o 
duiu upon he soil. The sovereign people, through tneLr I a \U 

have mv.ted stingers to come amongst them, offeriClem as 

an inducement, to guarantee the enjoyment of ^ equal privilege, 

mr^hLl™* n Pa r ty " m fhe United SUte ^ ^aniFest so 
io f.n land 9 W " lg *W a j' wt <° have been born in a 
ioiei 6 n land/ We are ourselves almost stran-ers and even 
now there are those living who fought side by T.i U ' wit a foT 
e ign army sent from a foreign land/to aid us in our first ba- 
les in the cause of liberty. The most trusted friend ■ o Was - 
lvctox, in that great struggle, were natives of a foreign land • 
and fore.gn-born citizens have ever since, in all our vvars, *W 
e, ted a love a id a devotion to our country well wor In- the 
imitation and commendation of all true patriots. °u w re 
LAFAY G r rR himselfalive and a citizen of the Republic which he 
ma erially aided in establishing, he would fij S/Lf fee 
very men whose liberties he had purchased as it wete w th hi. 

S tir n g is. wiihhoU fr °* him the ^ ^^-t <m> 

cll J 1 1 K rinC ' pleS of every party in a republican government 
be consistent with the fundamental doctrines^ the Con- 

3hi?l 1 , T aad '°J al t0 the S^ernment; bat that party 

which advocates the establishment of « a religious ten as J 
quahhcatum to any office or public trust un'derle the UnUed 

btates, '' or wluch proposes to disfranchise foreign- horn citizens 
who are already by our Constitution and Iaws^nli led t cer 
tain privileges, are just as guilty of opposition to the spirit of 
a monarchy " * - °^ *"* WW* ^ ^H^l of 
Many persons have identified themselves with the Know- 

o ic church and to foreigners, without reflecting that by becom- " 

exi ,n^ v ^he ^onsftution, and to the faithful exertion of 
exiting laws. These say thai they but exercise the rights of 

S^I^ °' ^^ ** -Pi- *i$, whom! 

^^f^^ 11 ^^""-^ t0 aC( ^ uit themselves of the 
wiong by this mode of reasoning, to consider well the actual 



63 • 

position in which they stand. First, they arc sworn to oppose 
the elevation of any Catholic or foreign-born citizen, to any 
office, whatever, under the government. When men take this 
oath, they of course mean thereby to declare their conviction 
that these proscribed classes should not emoy the privileges 
thus denied. If they are correct In this, the Constitution, which 
prohibits all religious tests, is wrong, And if they are sincere 
in the expression of their convictions upon this point, then it is 
equally manifest that they ought to desire such an amendment 
to the Constitution as will make that instrument conform to 
this theory. 1 submit-to every candid investigator of causes 
and effects, whether this is not an inevitable conclusion from 
the premises. If this principle of the Know-Nothing creed does 
not involve a change in the organic law, which will render it 
effective, it means nothing. It is absurd to declare a law to 
be wrong, and at the same time that it is not right to amend it. 
So it is equally absurd for a party to declare that members of 
a certain Christian church should, on account of their religious 
opinions, be denied the political privileges of other citizens, 
and yet take r.o steps to accomplish by law that disability. 

Let us imagine, that party to base attained to the accom- 
plishment of their purpose, in getting the control < f this gov- 
ernment. Let it be supposed that they will succeed in attract- 
ing to their sup port a majority of the people of the Republic;, and 
with the sovereign power in their own hands, that they set to 
work to carry out the principles which they are sworn to sup- 
port. Does any one imagine for a moment that they will be 
content with the simple disfranchisement of Catholics ? Does 
any one suppose that after having mutilated the glorious char- 
ter of our liberties, after having robbed the Constitution of iU 
brightest jewel, by the exclusion of one religious denomination 
from a participation in its blessings, that they will unite harmo- 
niously upon any one system, as the true religion of the State ? 
Will the different Protestant sects agree among themselves as 
to which one of them shall predominate, or vvhetber all shall 
share in the enjoyment of rights which are denied to Catholics ? 
Will the Atheists and the Inlidels, the Debauchees and the In- 
ebriates, the Politicians and the Demagogues be satisfied with 
any of them, without such a modification as will adapt, them to 
their own peculiar views ? For it must be remembered that 
these are the men who will be called upon to decide these 
grave questions of Christian doctrine. The subject has been, 
as it were. cast out from the pulpit, into the political arena. Re- 
ligion has been made a political question; and those who elect 
Constable.-!, Sheriffs, Members ot Congress, and Governors of 



64 

States, must, likewise, when that issue comes up, settle the true 
form of Christian worship. 

We connot decide in advance, -what particular form of faith 
would acquire the ascendency; but the. true Christian, who is 
not blinded by fanatical hatred, will have no difficulty in de- 
termining what would be the effect upon Christianiiy itself. 
The apparel of the inebriate who rolls in the gutter must be 
soiled; the morals of the virtuous, by an association with the 
vicious, must be contaminated: so, likewise, will the purity of the 
Christian religion be sullied by contact with political factions 
and legislative demagogues. If you would maintain that holy 
faith in the respect, and the love and the affections of mankind, 
you must confide it to the keeping of those only who at least 
profess to be its disciples. 

The separation of religion from politics has long been advo- 
cated by the most eloquent apostles of liberty. '1 his senti- 
ment has often been enunciated in the past by those friends of 
freedom, who have sprung up amid the despotisms which have 
held mankind in the bonds of slavery. They could not il- 
lumine the darkness which over- clouded the minds of those who 
surrounded them, yet they afforded, nevertheless, lessons of 
instruction for posterity. Even in the midst of the madness 
which seized upon the French people, when they attempted to 
establish a new religion of state, we find evidence that by a 
few this important question was understood. When France 
had interdicted the Catholic worship, and the National Assem- 
bly was engaged in establishing a new form of worship out of 
the elements of those which had been destroyed, Andre Ciieneer, 
who afterwards died upon the scaffold, addressed to that body 
a letter which embodied the only principle that could have 
saved the Republic from the ruin, disgrace and crimes which 
ended in its destruction, and in the re-establishment of des- 
potism. 

" The National Convention," said he, " has pretended to form 
a civil code of religion ; that is to say, it had the idea of cre- 
ating one priesthood after having destroyed another. Of what 
consequence is it to the State, that one religion differs from 
another ? Is it for the National Assembly to re-unite the di- 
vided sects, and weigh all their differences ? Arc politicians 
theologians ? We shall only be delivered from the influence 
of these men, when the National Assembly shall have main- 
tained for iach the. perfect liberty of following whatsoever reli- 
gion may please it ; when every one shall pay for the worship 
he prefers to adopt, and pays for no other : and when the im- 
partiality of tribunals, in such cases, shall punish alike the per- 



65 

secutors or the seditious of all forms of worship. The mem- 
bers of the National Assembly say, that the French people are 
not yet sufficiently ripe for this doctrine. We must reply te 
them — This may be, but it is for you to ripen us by your words, 
your acts, your laws. Priests do not trouble States, when Slates 
do not disturb them. Let us remember thaf eighteen centuries 
have, seen all the Christian sects torn and bleeding from theologi- 
cal disputes and sacerdotal hatreds — always terminating by 
arming themselves with popular power. " 

Is there a true lover of liberty in this boasted land of Freedom, 
who can contemplate without a shudder, the consummation in 
practice of the theory upon which Know-Nothingism is predi- 
cated ? Surely no member of that party possessed of ordinary 
reasoning faculties can suppose that they can successfully con- 
tinue the existence of a party which advocates mere abstract 
doctrines that are never to be legally established. No political 
party can maintain any hold upon the sympathies of the peo- 
ple which bases it claims to support upon certain enumerated 
principles, and at the same time declares that those principles 
should not be carried into practice by legal enactments. The 
people will not follow leaders who tell them that all the meas- 
ures they advocate are right in theory, but would be wron° f in 
practice ; that they must take an oath to support only such men 
as are in lavor of a certain measure, but that the men thus 
placed in power are not expected to enact that measure into a 
law. It would be an injustice to honest believers in the doc- 
trines of the Know Nothing party to suppose that their purpose 
is merely to seize upon or to gratify a popular antipathy of the 
people, lor the sole purpose of attaining to political power, and 
1, therefore conclude that they mean what they say, and that 
they desire to establish their doctrines as the permanent policy" 
of the Republic. Old Whigs, as well as all others who are de- 
voted to the great principles of civil and religious liberty may 
well pause and ponder upon these things before irrevocably 
committing themselves to the support of such a party. 
5 



66 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Jacobin Clubs of Franco— Points of similarity between them and the Know-Nothing' 
Clubs — Burning of the Ursuline Convent tit Boston — The Hiss Committee — Execution of 
Kuns in France — Riot, a consequence of Religious disputes — Know -Nothing path to pre- 
scribe Whigs, whod'i not join the Order. — Whig principles differ altogether from those 
eupported by Know-Nothings — Whigs must now decide upon their future course. 

The following account of the origin of the Jacobin Clubs of 
France is from Lamartine's History of the Girondists : 

" The presentation by two members [of the Jacobins,] and 
an open scrutiny as to the character of the person proposed, 
were the conditions of admission : A set of rules, an office, a 
President, a Corresponding Committee, Secretaries, a Tribune 
and Orators, gave to these meetings all the forms of delibera- 
tive assemblies. Of all the passions of the people, their hatred 
was the most flattered. They made it suspicious, in order to 
subject it. The most eloquent in its eyes was he who inspired 
foiviththe most dread — it had a. parching thirst for denuncia- 
tions, and they were lavished on it with prodigal hand. This 
expression of opinion, thus organized into a permanent associ- 
ation at every point in the Empire, gave an electric shock which 
nothing could resist. All the Societies corresponded with 
one another and with the mother Society. It was the govern- 
ment or factions enfolding in their nets the government of the 
law ; but the law was mute°and invisible, while faction was 
erect and eloquent. It was the rule of fanaticism, preceding the 
Reign of Terror. Thus was the Jacobin Club organized." 

By the exercise of our reasoning faculties, we are often able 
to determine the effects that will follow from given causes, but 
we are more fully confirmed in such conclusions by a history of 
what have been the consequences flowing from similar causes 
in the past. Experience is, of all tutors, the most to be relied 
upon. History, which is the recorded experience of the past, 
is an ever-present monitor, by whose teachings it is the part of 
wisdom to be instructed. 

The similarity between the Jacobin Clubs of France and the 
Know-Nothing Clubs of the United States, in many of their 
features, principles and objects, is apparent to any one familiar 
with their inception, their purposes and their history. Each 
had for its object the creation of a public opinion which would 
override and supersede the law — the erection of a power more 
potent than the Constitution. Each flattered t/ie passions and 
Psnp.rMallv the hatred of the people against certain classes and 



especially the hatred of the people 



67 

sects. Each had a thirst for denunciation. Each encouraged 
and stimulated the fanaticism of good and worthy citizens, as 
well also as the fanaticism of Atheism and Infidelity, by pro- 
posing the proscription of Catholic citizens. The members of 
each were bound by the most solemn and imposing obligations 
to stand by each other in every emergency. And each, no 
doubt, contained within its bosom many good citizens, who, 
we must suppose, were actuated by pure and patriotic motives. 
It cannot be doubted that many members of the Know-Xothing 
party, through zeal for the form of worship which they regard 
as the purest emanation from the Bible, have attached them- 
selves to that party in the hope of crippling the Catholic church 
in the United States. But in this they have most assuredly 
consulted their feelings, rather than their judgment. They 
have adopted a course which will be, of all others, the most ef- 
fective means of increasing the moral strength and the numerical 
force of that church. Persecution has never yet made, and, 
unless man's nature changes, never will make, a real convert. 
The Jacobins deluged every plain and valley of beautiful 
France with the tears and blood of hundreds of thousands of 
Catholics — the country was converted into one great human 
slaughter-house — their churches were all closed, and worship 
was forbidden under pain of immediate death ; and yet the 
Catholic church emerged from the ruin and is now the univer- 
sally practiced worship of the French people. True Christians 
should learn that, in a Republic, the only effectual mode of 
combatting error is by an appeal to reason. The pulpit is the 
place from whence to disseminate true religion, and the Christ- 
ian cause must suffer when it is mingled up with politics, and 
rests its defence with politicians and demagogues. 

I am far from believing that it is the purpose of the Know- 
Nothing party to perpetrate the enormities which degraded the 
Jacobins of France. Neither was it the original design of the 
Jacobins to carry their hostility to the extreme of persecution 
which signalized their career ; but the tendency of all religious 
controversies, when embittered by party animosities, is in that 
direction. In 183-1, the anti-Catholic mob in Boston sacked 
the Ursuline Convent, and at a later period, in the same city, 
the Know-Xothing Hiss Committee, appointed by the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts, was content with baiely insulting the 
young girls in the nunnery. The American mob was satisfied 
with burning the building where the nuns resided, but the Jaco- 
bins shed the blood of the victims. One ofihese scenes is thus 
described by an eminent French historian. After detailing the 
incidents of one of the daily executions which signalized the 
Reign of Terror, the writer says : 



68 

" On the following morning the cars, still more numerous, 
carted to the guillotine all the Nuns of the Abbey of Montmar- 
tre. The Abbess was Madame tie Montmorency. Those poor 
females of every age, from tender youth even to grey hairs, 
thrown, while children, into the convents, had no crime to an- 
swer for but the will of their parents and fidelity to their reli- 
gious vows. Grouped around their Abbess, they made the air 
resound with sacred chaunts on mounting the carts, and sang 
hvmns even to the scaffold. As the Girondists had chaunted 
the hymn of their own death, so did these virgins sing, even to 
the last voice, the hymn of their martyrdom." — Lamartine. 

It is unnecessary to trace farther the parallel between these 
two parties. It is to be hoped that no such brutality will mark 
the contentions of Christian sects in the United States, although 
in the riots and bloodshed, and bitterne?s and hatred, which 
have already attended the progress of the Know-Nothing party, 
good citizens have every reason to dread the effects which may 
flow from a continuance of this agitation. I know that this 
party has attempted to relieve itself from the responsibility of 
bloody riots at Louisville and elsewhere, by alleging that the 
foreign-born citizens and Roman Catholics commenced the 
assault. It is not at all necessary to my purpose, to decide upon 
this point ; but I do say, and it will not be denied, that these 
deplorable results are the legitimate consequences which will 
ensue fiom the effort to enforce such doctrines as are advocated 
by the Know-Nothing party. 

Without pausing here to dwell upon the impropriety of bind- 
ing the members of a political party by solemn and fearful 
oaths, I desire especially to direct the attention of old Whi^s, 
and others who are not members of the Order, as well as the 
rank and file of the Know-Nothing party, to one portion of the 
oath, which is exacted Irom its members, upon admission into 
its Councils. 

'-' You promise and declare that you will support in all polit- 
ical'matters, for all political offices, the second degree members 
of this Order, provided it be necessary for the American inter- 
ests ;" [i.e., the interests of the American or Know-Nothing 
party.] ****** Aftd that you will ever 
seek the political advancement of those men who are good and true 
members of this Order P 

With this oath staring us in the face, old Whigs are called 
upon by this party to rally around their standard, and aid in 
die elevation of their " second degree members " to all political 
offices ; nay, more — they claim the support of Whigs on the 
score of duty, and previous party association, and denounce all 
such as will not submit to this outrageous insult as traitors. 



Old Whigs are required to be : ' hewers of wood and drawers of 
water " for a party whose members have sworn that they will 
not in turn confer their support upon Whigs. Can it be true 
that the faithful old followers of Clay, who have remained 
steadfast and true to their principles, have fallen so low that 
they can confer their support upon a party which withholds 
rom them their birthright of freedom and equality? Have 
the old Whig hosts, whose banners and flags once waving so 
proudly in every valley, and on every hill and mountain-top 
throughout the length and breadth of the Republic, so fallen 
from their high estate, that they are content to ligure in the 
train of men who declare, in effect, upon their oaths, that old 
Whigs are unworthy to hold office ? And you, too — the " rank 
and file," the first degree members of the Order — are you con- 
tent with the position of inferiority assigned to you? Are you 
satisfied to be regarded as the plebeians of their party, who are 
not entitled to any of the rewards or the offices, but whose sin- 
gle duty it is to elevate by your suffrages the second degree 
members of the Order? 

It is needless to comment further upon the oath to which I 
have referred. Let old Whigs, and all others who have not 
attained to the dignity of the second degree, read and consider 
it well in all its bearings; and if they, after such an examination, 
conclude to support the candidates of the Know-Nothing party, 
I would say to them frankly, and in all kindness, Go take the 
oaths necessary to constitute you a second degree member of 
the Know-Nothing Order; and although you thereby surrender 
your personal freedom of thought and action into the keeping 
of an irresponsible majority of the Council, you will be, at least 
in theory, the equal of those on whom you confer your 
eupport. 

I have thus, in the last three numbers of these " Reflections 
and Suggestions," considered a Caw of the most prominent ob- 
jections to the policy, principles, and tendencies of the Ivnow- 
Nothing party. I have stated them fairly and frankly, and 
with no feeling of personal unkindness against those who differ 
with me in opinion. I feel fully assured that no old line Whig 
can discover the slightest resemblance in the political faith of 
the two parties. On the contrary, they differ in all their aims 
and objects; they differ in the measures they propose, and in 
the principles which lie at their foundations ; they differ in 
spirit, theory' and practice; they differ in every thing : they have 
nothing in common. I feel and know that old Clay Whigs will 
coincide with me in this opinion, whatever may bo their pres- 
ent party attitude. I am satisfied that many an honest old 
Whig has felt in the very depths of his heart the truth of every 



70 



word I have uttered, who still lingers in the train of Know- 
Nothingism, loth to separate himself from old party associates , 
But the time has come when longer hesitation becomes a crime 
against patriotism. Our delay has exhibited our attachment 
to our old party. Let our action, now, manifest our devotion 
to our country. 



CHAPTER XII. 

No mere names should be received as a substitute for principles— Respect entertained for Mr, 
Fillmore— His opinions on the subject of Abolitionism — No man is a sutlieu'nt Platform of 
principles lor genuine Republicans— Is Doneison to be trusted by Whigs?— His insult to the 
Whig party- Importance of the office of Vice President, as illustrated by the death of 
Harrison and Taylor. 

Are the names of Messrs. Fillmore and Donelson a sufficient 
platform for old Whigs to stand upon, in the present important 
crisis in the affairs of the Republic ? Never before has the 
country been called on to decide upon such important and 
grave questions. It is admitted by all parties, that the result 
of the next Presidential election will be more fruitful of good or 
evil, than any that has preceded it during the present 
generation. The issues involved,. I have already discussed; 
and in view of their magnitude, I will make my interrogatory 
broader, and ask, Is any living man platform enough for the 
patriotic and conservative Whig party ? There was a time, in 
the palmy and glorious days of its former greatness, when such 
a question would have been regarded as an insult by the hum- 
blest follower of the party, but now, in this period of our 
humiliation, we must submit without a murmur to the implied 
degradation. I cannot doubt, however, for a single moment, 
what would be the response of all in whose bosoms burn a 
spark of the old Whig fire, if they give voice to the feelings 
of their hearts. Never yet has a candidate for the Presidency 
been presented for our suffrage, who was regarded as ' : plat- 



71 

form enough," without a full and free declaration of principles 
by the party presenting him. Even Mr. Clay, the great head 
and acknowledged leader of the Whig party, never came before 
the people, without a full and distinct understanding between 
him and his supporters upon all questions which agitated the 
public mind. 

The blood of a Bourkon, or a Bonaparte, or a scion of the 
Royal Mouse of Hapsburg, may be sufficient platform for the 
subjects of a monarchy; but in a free government like ours, no 
man is platform enough to command the confidence and sup- 
port of the people ; and old Whigs will have to forget all the 
teachings of the old leaders, before they can abandon principles 
for the sake ofnny man. I do not mean to convey the idea of 
any disres >eet towards Mr. Fillmore, the candidate, who, in the 
absence of a frank and free declaration of principles on the part 
of bis supporters, is presented as, of himself, " platf rm enough ' ' 
for bis party. 1 have no disposition to avoid the expression of 
regard and esteem for this distinguished statesman. There are 
important acts of his administration as President, which met 
my unqualified approbation; but, notwithstanding this, his ante- 
cedents are not of such a character as to leave no shade of 
doubt, as to his opinions upon important subjects. Grave 
questions have arisen since the completion of his President ia 
term, and Abolition, although strong then, is now "wrestling 
with the government for its very existence." The unretracted 
opinions expressed by him upon this subject, must leave a 
painful uncertainty upon the minds of Southern people, in view 
of the admitted Abolitionism of the Know-Nothing party in the 
North, as evidenced in the:;* National Convention. Old Whi^s 
would, no doubt, be willing to confide in Mr. Fillmore, if he had 
been nominated by an old-fashioned Whig convention, upon 
old-fashioned Whb_ r principles ; but the time selected to place 
him before the American people, on the sole platform of his 
political antecedents, is certainly inopportune, in view of the 
following expression of opinion on the great questions of the 
day : 

Buffalo, October 17, 18SS. 

Sir: — Your communication of the 15th inst.,as Chairman oi 
a Committee appointed by "The Anti-Slavery Society of the 
County of F,rie," has just come to hand. You solicit my answer 
to the following interrogatories : 

1st. Do you believe that petitions to Congress on the subject 
of Slavery and the Slave Trade ought to be received, read and 
respectfully considered by the representatives of the people? 



72 

2d. Are you opposed to the annexation of Texas to this 
Union, under any circumstances, so long as slaves are held 
therein ? 

3d. Are you in favor of Congress exercising all the Constitu- 
tional power it possesses, to abolish tiie internal Slave Trad® 
between States ? 

4th. Are you in favor of immediate legislation for the aboli- 
tion of Slavery in the District of Columbia ? 

I am much engaged and have no time to enter into an argu- 
ment, or to explain at length my reasons for my opinion. I 
shall, therefore, content myself for the present, by answering 
ALL your interrogatories in the AFFIRMATIVE, and leave 
for some future occasion a more extended discussion on the 
sunipct ^ ^ 

MILLARD FILLMORE. 

Since the days of Washington, no candidate for the Prest- 
dercy has been regarded as so far above the people, and the 
frailties and faults of human nature, as to be deemed, of him- 
self, a sufficient platform of principles, for his supporters. Jef- 
ferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, and Clay, all came be- 
fore the people as the representatives of certain enumerated 
and well-defined doctrines. Now, I would ask, is Mr. Fillmore 
so far elevated above these shining beacon-lights in the past 
history of the Republic, or are the adherents of the old Whig 
party so far degraded below the people of other days, that they 
must make a platform of the man, instead of his measures and 
principles? However exalted maybe our regard for Mr, 
Fillmore, or however humble we may consider the old Whig 
party, an emphatic negative must be the response of every 
true-hearted and patriotic old Whig. But if Mr. Fillmore, 
with all the respect and attachment which we entertain tor him, 
on account of old party associations, is not, of himself, a suffi- 
cient platform for old Whigs, how much smaller is the title of 
A. J. Donelson to this undoubting confidence on the part of 
our old party ! The candidate for the Vice Presidency, is a 
man between whom and Whigs there has never been any po- 
litical affinities. He is a recent deserter from the Democratic 
party, professing still to entertain all his former Democratic 
opinions, and that he has only added to his creed the peculiar 
tenets of the Know-Nothing party. Nay more ! In his letter 
accepting the nomination of the Convention, he, while announc- 
ing his desertion of the Democratic party, adopts the slang 
and stereotyped terms of detraction in common use among 
certain leaders of the Know-Nothings ; and in the very midst 
of the act consummating his treason, pauses to bestow a kick 



upon the lifeless remains of his old antagonist, the Whig party. 
Read what he says in his Tulip Grove letter of acceptance : 

"OUR LEADING IDEA IS, that the two old parties, Dem- 
ocratic AND WHIG, have ceased to exert their former health- 
tul influence, in the management of the public "interest, and 
that without the intervention of reforms, which THEY CAN NEV. 
ER EFFECT, the beloved Constitution and Union, bequeath- 
ed to us by our forefathers, WILL NOT LONG BE PRE- 
SERVED!!" 

We thus find the candidate for the Vice Presidency so 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of unkindness towards the 
old Whig party, that he restores its vitality for the moment- 
assures us that it is still living and vigorous, but that it has 
ceased to exert a healthful influence, and that unless he can in- 
troduce some reform, the Whig and Democratic parties, togeth- 
er, will destroy the " beloved Constitution bequeathed to us by 
our forefathers ! ! " He has in this assault upon the Whig par- 
ty imitated the ambitious but recreant soldier, who arriving 
too late upon the battle-field to take the life of an enemy 
propped up a dead body, that he might have the gratification' 
of knocking it down again. Maj. Donelson contents himself 
with the utterance of vague charges, and fails to tell us what 
principles or measures of the Whig party are so dangerous to 
the perpetuity of our " beloved Constitution and Union." Like 
the National Know-Nothing Convention, and the leaders of 
that party generally, he combines in the same category the 
Whig and Democratic parties ; and although they assume that 
the principles of both are inimical to the interest of the coun- 
try, they yet claim the support of old Whigs, under the penalty 
of impeachment for high treason ! 

Now, without meaning any disrespect to Major Donelson or 
his supporters, but as an old Whig, and in the name of the old 
Whig party, who are called upon to give him their support for 
the exalted station of Vice President of the United States, I 
woulu ask whether it is Major Donelson, the Democrat— Major 
Donelson the deserter— Major Donelson, the recently convert- 
ed Know-Nothing-or Major Donelson, the present reviler of 
the old Whig party— either or all— which constitute a "plat- 
form of principles " that entitles him to the confidence of old 
Whigs f 1 he country will bear in mind that the office sought 
lor by Major Donelson is scarcely less important than that of 
the 1 residency itself. Only twice in the history of the Whig 
party has it succeeded in its Presidential contests, and upon 
both occasions, at a very early period in their administrations, 
their 1 residents were taken away by the hand of death, and 
me Vice 1 residents occupied the vacated stations, and complet- 



74 

ed their terms of office. If old Whigs find nothing in the ante- 
cedents of the Knovv-Nothing candidate for the Vice Presidency, 
which commend him to their support, they will see less in his 
recent conversion, and in his gratuitous assaults upon the old 
Whig party, to strengthen their attachment to his person, or 
to establish their confidence in his principles or his reliability 
as a man and as a politician. 

In brief, then, the Knovv-Nothing leaders demand of the 
members of the old Whig party, that they accept Messrs. Fill- 
more and Donelson as their "platform of principles ;" that 
they give their support to candidates for office, who are sworn 
to " seek the political advancement of members of the Knovv- 
Nothing order," and of course to the exclusion of all Whigs, 
who have not taken the oaths; that they support a candidate 
who, in taking his position with his new aossciates, travels out 
of his sphere to bestow a buffet upon the old Whig party ; and 
above all, that they throw the weight of their influence in fa- 
vor of candidates who, even if successful in Tennessee, can 
only accomplish a division in the South, and a diversion in 
favor of Black Republicanism, which maybe fatal to the rights 
of the South, and to the perpetuity of the Union. Old line 
Whigs may have been taught some humility in the school of 
misfortune; yet we cannot suppose that their old spirit is so 
thoroughly broken, as to accept the candidates of the Knovv- 
Nothing party as an all-sufficient platform of principles. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Example f)f Henry Clay — Abolitionism th^ great question of the day— The American party 
i ri the North entirely AboUtionized — Six reason* why old line Whigs cannot support the 
Know-Nothings — Reasons for their union with the National party— Commaiiding positio* 
etf the old Whig party in the present, emergency. 

" Holding the principle that a citizen, as long as a single 
pulsation remains, is under an obligation to exert his utmost en- 
ergies in the service of his country, ichcther in private or publie 
station, my friends here and every where, may restassured that 
in either condition, I shall stand erect, with a spirit unconquer- 
ed, whilst life endures, ready to second their exertions in the 
cause of liberty the Union and the national prosperity . * * * 



75 

Whenever the Whig party shall become merged into a misera- 
ble sectional Abolition party, I will renounce it forever, and in 
the future act with that party, REGARDLESS OF ITS NAME, 
which stands by the CONSTITUTION and the UNION!"— 
IIknuy Ci.ay. 

In concluding the series of " Reflections and Suggestions on 
the Present State of Parties, " which have already been extend- 
ed to a much greater length than was embraced in the original 
scope of my design, I am fully aware that I have noi done full 
justice to the important subjects which I have been called upon 
to consider. Every reader will agree, however, that I have 
not indulged discourteous or offensive allusions to those whose 
positions 1 have found it necessary to controvert, and that I 
have founded my arguments only upon undeniable and ad- 
mitted truths. 1 have considered the subjects in controversy 
fairly, frankly, and certainly without any prejudice against 
those with whom I have been so long politically associated, but 
who upon these subjects entertain opinions different from my 
own. I cannot for one moment doubt that the conclusions 
which I have drawn from these facts will coincide in every im- 
portant particular with the views and opinions of all vvhigs who 
cherish in their breasts an attachment for their old party. Af- 
ter a calm and considerate survey of all the questions at issue 
pertaining to the approaching struggle for the Presidency, it 
rriust be conceded by enlightened observers of passing events 
that ABOLITIONISM is " the great, live, practical issue" which, 
if it does not entirely absorb, certainly overrides by the vast- 
ness of the interests involved in its discussion, all other ques- 
tions now before the American people. It is a hideous mon- 
ster which " is wrestling with the government for its very life ; " 
and, however anxious we may be to avoid or postpone the con- 
flict, "it can no longer be ignor-ed.'" It has already mastered 
the popular branch of our National Legislature; and if, by heart- 
less party antipathies in the South, it should be enabled to 
seize upon the Chief Executive Office of the nation, we may at 
once prepare for a dissolution of the Unionf or to submit our-^- 
necks to a more intolerable yoke of bondage than that which 
is now worn by our own slaves. 

Prominent adherents of thatparty have told us, even upon 
the floor of Congress, that they would hail the "uprising of the 
slaves in the South, the assassination of the whites, and the 
pollution of their hearthstones, as the dawning of a political 
millenium." Their more sagacious leaders, however, pretend 
that they only desire to absorb for their own use the Territo- 
ries of the United States, and to prohibit the Southern people 
from all paiticipation therein. Presumptuous as is this claim 



76 

to superiority, the disguise is too thin to mask the actual pur- 
pose which they hope to accomplish. Like the anaconda en- 
folding its victim, they design to encircle us by our enemies, 
and then to crush us in their serpent folds. If this party found- 
ed its pretensions upon any principle of honesty, decency, or 
necessity, we might hope, even at the last moment preceding 
the consummation of its purposes, in view of the calamitous 
consequences that must ensue from their triumph, that they 
might be induced to retrace their steps. But the principles of 
Abolitionism have their foundations in " envy, hatred, malice 
and all uncharitableness, " and fanaticism is the mere instru- 
ment used to conceal these bad passions, under a show of pie- 
ty and religion. There is no hope of conciliating its ani- 
mosity. 

In the Northern States, where Abolitionism finds its only ad- 
herents, it is confessedly true that its only antagonist is the 
national Democratic party. The American or Know Nothing 
party is as thoroughly Abolitionized in the free State, as the 
Black-Republicans themselves. In proof of this fact, 1 need 
only adduce the unanimity with which, in the election for 
Speaker, they united upon Banks — in the undisguised spirit of 
aggression upon Southern rights, which signalized the proceed- 
ings of their National Convention at Philadelphia, and (beyond 
the limits of Philadelphia and New York) the universal de- 
monstration of Abolition proclivities among the adherents and 
supporters of that party. Old Whigs who are guided by the 
great conservative and national principles which they have 
always claimed to be the distinctive characteristics of their 
party, cannot support the candidates of the Know-Nothing or 
American party. 

1st. Because by voting for Fillmore and Donelson they di- 
vide the strength of the national forces, which should be ar- 
rayed in solid column against the Black Republicans. 

2d. Because the Know-Nothing candidates can only be 
elected by attracting to their support the Abolition Americans 
of the North; and, therefore, the success of that ticket would 
be virtually a defeat of the national party, ana a triumph of 
Abnlkionism. 

3d. Because the measures and principles of the Know-Noth- 
ing party are directly in conflict with the fundamental doctrines 
of free government, and with that freedom of conscience in 
questions of religious faith, which is the dearest inheritance 
bequeathed to us by our republican ancestors. 

4th. Because secret political societies, the members of which 
are bound together by solemn oaths, are immoral in their ten- 
dency, dangerous to liberty, inconsistent with the spirit of re- 



77 

publicanism, and unnecessary in a free country, where every 
citizen has a right to express his opinions upon political sub- 
jects, without let or hindrance. 

5th. Because all their political principles and practices are 
at war with the principles and practices of the Whig party, 
which they repudiate and condemn. 

Oth. Because true Whigs cannot, in the exercise of a proper 
degree of self respect, support the candidates of a party, the 
members of which, under the solemnities of oaths, have virtu- 
ally bound themselves to exclude all Whigs who have not taken 
upon themselves similar oaths, from the honors and emolu- 
ments of office in the Republic. 

These insuperable objections to a union of old line Whigs 
with the American or Know-Nothing party conceded, they 
have only one of two alternatives left ; either to remain inac- 
the spectators of the conflict between the sectional Abolition 
party of the North, and the national Democratic party of the 
Union, or to assume a position in which their influence may 
save the country from the portentous evils by which it is 
menaced. As Whigs, we owe no allegiance to any party, and 
least of all to that one, which, by its defection, accomplished 
the destruction of our party, and whose leaders ingloriously 
beg to be released from their portion of responsibility to the 
country, for what they term its obnoxious acts and violated 
pledges. 

Never before in the history of the Republic, has any party 
occupied a position in which it could accomplish more for its 
own fame and the general good of the country, than can the 
old line Whigs in the present conflict, by a rigid adherence to 
the course of policy indicated by the antecedents of their past 
history. To effect a re-organization now, with a view to sep- 
arate and independent action in the approaching struggle, ia 
not only at this l;-tte period impracticable; but if it were possi- 
ble, it could accomplish no practical results. In this contest, 
we must of necessity take our position with one or the other of 
the organized parties; but in doing so, we incur no obligation 
whatever to abstain, either noiv or hereafter, from a reconstruc- 
tion of our own party, if we should regard it either necessary 
or desirable. 

While, therefore, the importance of the interests involved 
in the issue, enforces upon old line Whigs the necesity of 
participating actively in the important political events that are 
transpiring, and while it is imposibie for them to co-operate 
with the Know-Nothing party, without an entire abandonment 
of their cherished principles, and a disregard to the teachings 
and to the illustrious example of their great leader, Clay, we 



78 

cannot close our eyes to the incontestible fact, that there is not 
one question that has hitherto divided the old Whig and Demo- 
cratic parties, which enters into the present contest. And furth- 
er, that, upon every issue involved in the approaching Presi- 
dential struggle, there is an entire coincidence and agreement 
between the old line Whigs and the Democratic party. After 
long years of estrangement upon questions of mere govern- 
mental policy, a common danger has re-united the patriotic, 
conservative and national elements of both parties upon a com- 
mon platform. 

There has been a time in the past, when the Whig party, by 
the magnitude of its proportions, the brilliancy of its struggles, 
and the greatness of its leaders, has presented to the world a 
more imposing spectacle, but never before has there occurred 
an emergency, when, by a single patriotic and spontaneous ef- 
fort, its still faithful supporters could accomplish so much for 
its own permanent glory, and for the welfare and happiness 
of the Republic. 

The old Whig party, as an organized body, no longer exists ; 
it has perished at the hands of those in whom it most trusted ; 
it has fallen by the treachery of pretended friends ; but let not 
its Epitaph be written until it may be recorded, that in the 
great struggle between the Nation^ and the sectional and sec- 
tarian Factions, which menaced its integrity, the last expiring 
efforts of its disbanded, but still patriotic adherents, were direct- 
ed to the preservation of the Union, without concessions, and 
the Constitution, without mutilation. 

Then, 

" while the tree 

Of freedom's withered trunk puts forth a leaf, 
Even for its tomb, a garland it will be," 



AJPJPENDIX. 

The Nashville Gazelle propounds to "an Old Clay Whig" 
the following interrogatories, to which I most cheerfully re- 
spond : 

"Will you or will you not vote for any candidate for the 
next Presidency who is, and has always been opposed to the 
old (lay Whig party? 

Will you now, and hereafter, identify yourself with a party' 
which does now and has always heretofore opposed the princi- 
ples and policy of the old Clay Whig party !" 

ANSWER. 

Old line Whigs, who seek to regulate their course in the 
approaching contest for the Presidfifo.cv,Aioojl mere parly names, 
and the antecedents of the oartfintates as nt'*re ^partisan Uaders, 
would, of course, abstain frp,tfi all participation in the contest 
for the Presidency, tor the reason that all the parties now be- 
fore the people either have in the pa<t, or do at present, occupy 
a position adverse to the Whig party. But if we regard prin,-- 
ciplcs as our guide, the question as to which of the two to choose, 
is one of easy solution. 

On the one hand we find the National Democratic party, 
against whom, it is true, the old Whig party once contended 
on the now settled and obsolete questions of land distribution, 
bank and tariff, ready for the struggle on a programme of prin- 
ciples, which commends itself to the patriotic regard of all true 
friends of liberty. 

The competitor of this party for public favor in Tennessee, is 
the American or Know-Nothing party, to which the Gazelle be- 
longs. This party recognises as its great leader in the South, 
Andrew Jackson Doners in, who has but recently abandoned 
the Democratic party, for the reason, as he alleges, that the 
Democracy has abandoned its old principles ! ! 

Mr. Donelson does not, according to his own showing, leave 
the Democratic party, because his own opinions have undergone 
a change, but because Democracy has changed!! If old fash- 
ioned Van Buren Democracy was now in vogue, he would still 
be ( if we are to credit his own declaration) a worshipper at the 
Democratic altar. But farther, Mr. Donelson most clearly 
means to intimate, in his Tulip Grove letter of acceptance, that 
the Democratic party, in abandoning its principles, has really 
gone over to the Old Whigs, and that this is substantially the 
reason of his late political migration, fie proclaims in that 
letter, that u the beloved Constitution and Union, bequeathed to us 
by our forefathers, will not long be preserved, without the inter- 



82 

vention of reforms, which the Democratic and Whig parties can 
never effect." Is it true, as intimated by the candidate for the 
Vice Presidency, that the old Whig and Democratic parties, 
under the pressure of present political questions, now stand 
upon the same platform? This being conceded, would it hot 
be most unwise, unpatriotic, and inconsistent for old Whigs to 
refuse to co-operate with the Democratic party, at a time when 
there is a complete identity of opinion between them, upon all 
the questions now in controversy? And would not that in- 
consistency amount to the extreme of folly, if old Clay Whigs, 
for the gratification of old unkindnesses against the Democra- 
tic party, should throw themselves into the embrace of Andrew 
J. Donelson, who boasts that he is still a good Van Buren Dem- 
ocrat, — that he left the Democratic party because it had aban- 
doned its former pd^uipic^— and that he still entertains all 
his old feelings of ....version to the old Whig party! 

It is clear, then, that if the old Clay Whig? take part in the 
next Presidential election, they have no alternative but to 
•choose between two candidates, both claiming to have been op- 
posed to the old Clay Whig party. If it be the purpose of the 
•.Gazette to elicit from me an answer as to which of these two 
tickets I will support, I have no hesitation in expressing my 
preferrence for the National Democratic candidate over the 
professedly sectarian Democrat, A. J. Donelson, connected 
even with the name of Millard Fillmore. 

In reply to the second interrogatory, I will be equally frank 
.and explicit. Believing, as I sincerely do, that the American 
or Know-Nothing party "does now and has always heretofore 
-opposed the principles and policy of the old Clay Whig patty;" 
and knowing that its leaders profess in their platform of prin- 
ciples, that this party was "founded upon the ruins and in spite 
of the opposition of the old Whig party," I am free to declare 
that I will not now, nor do I think 1 ever will, identify myself 
with its political fortunes. 

But superadded to my disinclination to Know-Nothingism, 
on account of its attitude of antagonism to the old Whig party, 
I have another objection to it, which renders it peculiarly re- 
pugnant to Southern and National Whigs, who regard the pre- 
servation and perpetuity of the equal rights of the South, as of 
paramount importance. 

That the Know-Nothing party in Congress, from the North- 
ern States, and in fact the entire party beyond the limits of the 
Slave States, is thoroughly Abolitionized, no candid man can 
deny. But will it be said that Southern Know-Nothings are 
sound upon this question, and that they cannot be held respon- 
sible lor the opinions of their Northern allies upon collateral 



83 

issues ? Unfortunately, even this plea will avail them nothing; 
for both the Gazette and the Nashville Banner, urgently de- 
manded the expurgation of the Slaveiy test in the Knovv-Noth- 
ing platform, with the view of course of combining all the Abo- 
lition elements of the North against the National Democratic 
candidates. The Banner has, for months past, pursued a sys- 
tematic course of detraction and abuse of nearly all the lead- 
ing men in the North, who have espoused the cause of the 
South. The opinions of Pierce, Douglas, Cass, Buchanan, and 
other devoted friends and supporters of the Constitutional 
rights of the South, are condemned in terms which would seem 
to indicate a settled hostility to all Northern men, who dare to 
raise a voice in our defence. The Banner even went to the 
extreme length of declaring, in effect, that the opinions of the 
Black Republican " nigger worshipper " Campbell, more near- 
ly coincided with those entertained by that paper, than the 
bold, noble, manly, and patriotic sentiments of that gallant de- 
fender of Southern rights — Stephen A. Douglas. 

The Banner has the sagacity to perceive that unless the 
Know-Nothing party in the South can conciliate the Abolition- 
ists of the North, its defeat is inevitable. • Now, I appeal to all 
patriotic men of the South, no matter what may be their party 
preferences, and I submit the question to their consciences, 
whether a party victory would not be purchased at too high a 
price, that should be secured by such an unhallowed combina- 
tion ! To be more direct and specific, I submit for the consid- 
eration of those to whom the above question is propounded, the 
following extract from an article which appeared in the edi- 
torial columns of the Nashville Banner, on the 20th inst., co- 
pied, without dissent, from the Pennsylvania Enquirer. It is, aa 
the reader will perceive, a full exposition of the "ignoring" pol- 
icy so long advocated by the Banner, and shows clearly what 
is meant by those Southern editors who have proposed to 
strike out all the features of their political creed which conflict 
with the sentiments, or prejudices, of Black Republicanism. 
The article in question, after canvassing the chances of differ- 
ent Democratic aspirants, before the Cincinnati Convention* 
concludes thus : — 

" Indeed, the next presidential election is involved in utter 
obscurity. Thus far there is but a single candidate in the field, 
viz: Mr. Fillmore. Nevertheless, four more Conventions are 
still to be held, one by the Democrats, at Cincinnati; one by 
the Republicans, at Philadelphia ; one by the Whigs, at Louis- 
ville ; and one by the seceding Americans, at New York, 
Should all these take up distinct candidates, there will be no 
less than five tickets presented to the public. That the sens? 



84 

cf the country is against the policy of the National Administra- 
tion we have vo doubt; BUT THE IJIFFICULTY, unier the 
circumstances described, IS TO HARMONIZE THE OPPOSI- 
TION upon some broad and comprehensive platform. IS IT 
NOT POSSIBLE TO DO THIS YET?" 

The entire policy of the Banner, as illustrated in ita columns 
during the last few months, clearly indicates the character of 
the concessions it would be willing to make, in order to * harmo- 
nize all the elements ol opposition" to the Nation il Adminis- 
tration; but I do not believe that the patriotic old Whigs, either 
North or South, will consent to stand upon that " broad and 
comprehensive platform," which would unite them in political 
fellowship with Black Republican Abolitionists. 

It may be that the Banner and Enquirer suppose that it is 
possible, even yet, to accomplish this unholy combination of 
Jarring and discordant elements ; but for one, I believe that the 
mere announcement of such a purpose, especially in the South, 
will secure its defeat. There is a conservative and patriotic 
sentiment pervading the masses of all political parties in Ten- 
nessee, which would reject with horror any attempt to make 
them parties to such a compact as is shadowed forth in the 
foregoing extract in the columns of the Banner. And it can 
not be doubted that the intimation of such a design will arouse 
patriotic citizens of the South to the necessity of a more uni- 
ted opposition to the insidious encroachments of Black Re- 
publicanism. 

Having thus shown where I and other old Clay Whigs do not 
stand, it is proper to state explicitly what position we do oc- 
cupy, in reference to the political question and parties involved 
in the Presidential contest. In common with ihe Democratic 
party, we stand upon a platform of principles, of which the 
following are the leading features : The maintenance of the 
constitutional rights of the South, and opposition to all further 
compromises with, or concessions to, Abolitionism ; the perpet- 
uation of the constitutional right of every citizen to worship 
the Almighty, according to the dictates of his own conscience ; 
security and freedom to all who can justly claim the privileges 
cf citizenship under the laws, and opposition to oath bound 
political associations. The opinions of the Gazette, of course, 
differ materially from the views here enunciated; but I defy 
any one to point out a single article in that creed, which is in 
conflict with an) 7 principle that has ever been maintained 
by any one having a just claim to the appellation of " An Old 
€lay Whig." 



85 

Since the foregoing was put to press, the Great National 
Democratic party, have through their delegates, assembled in 
Convention at Cincinnati, unanimously presented for the sup- 
port of the American people, the name of 

JAMES BUCHANAN, 

of Pennsylvania, for President, and 

JOHN C. BKACKENRIDGE, 

of Kentucky, for Vice President. 

These nominations cannot fail at once to fix the determina- 
tion of those Old Whigs who have been awaiting the result of 
the deliberations of that convention before deciding as to their 
future course. ,In the galaxy of brilliant names which have ac- 
quired renown in our great Kepubtic, no others could be selected 
who would be more acceptable to the mass of the old conser- 
vative Whigs, or to the great Democratic party which claim§ 
James Buchanan, as one of its purest, ablest, and most distin- 
guished champions. 

Of John C. Urackenrtdgb, it is only necessary to say that he 
combines, all the elements, of the orator, the patriot, and the 
statesmen, and that upon the occurrence of any contingency, 
which might place him at the head of the government as its 
chief execuive officer, every citizen of the Republic, would feel 
that the country would be safe. 

But it is not alone the eminent fitness of these gifted and dis- 
tinguished citizens, for the exalted stations to which the con- 
servative party of the Union desires to elevate them, which 
commend them to the hearty support of patriotic old Whigs ; 
but, also the eminently National and Constitutional, platform upon 
which tlvy stand, cannot fail to attract to their support the con- 
servative elements of all the political organizations, North and 
South, which have divided the country. The principles embo- 
died in that declaration of political laith, are such as can be 
cordially maintained, in every portion of the confederacy. New 
Hampshire and South Carolina, Maine and Louisiana, Massa- 
chusetts and Georgia, may all stand together upon that broad 
and solid platform, without any abandonment of principles, or 
concession of rights on the part of either. It is a platform, 
which was adopted with enthusiasm, in the Convention, with- 
out amendment or alteration, by the unanimous voice of every 
Stale, and of every delegate. Old line Whigs, as Whigs or pat- 
riots, will discover no sentiment or principle bearing upon the 
great and exciting questions that now agitate the Republic, 
which differ in the smallest degree from those which they 



86 

have always maintained under the leadership of Hevry Clay, 
and the other great shining lights of the old Whig party. There 
is no evasion or subterfuge, or excess of verbiage, but all is 
clear, explicit, and to the point. 

In conclusion, 1 ask old Whigs to compare the resolutions 
adopted by the Democratic Convention, on all the questions 
which enter into the present struggle, (and which are hereto 
subjoined,) with the sectional, sectarian, proscriptive, and anti- 
Republican platforms, upon which the opponents of the Na- 
tional party now stand : 

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE DEMOCRATIC NA- 
TIONAL CONVENTION AT CINCINNATI, JUNE, 1856. 

Resolved, That the foundation of this Union of States having 
been laid in, and its prosperity and pie eminent example in free 
government built upon, entire freedom in matters of religious 
concernment, and no respectof persons in regard to rank, or 
place of birth, no party can justly be deemed national, consti- 
tutional, or in accordance with American principles, which 
bases its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and ac- 
cidental birth-place. And hence, a political crusade in the 
nineteenth century, and in the United States of America, 
against Catholics and foreign-born, is neither justified by the 
past history, or the future prospects of the country, nor in uni- 
son with the spirit of toleration and enlarged freedom which 
peculiarly distinguishes the American system of popular gov- 
ernment. 

Resolved, That we reiterate, with renewed energy of purpose, 
the well considered declaration of former Conventions upon 
the sectional issues of Domestic Slavery, and concerning the 
reserved rights of the States — ■ 

1. That Cong ess has no power, under the Constitution, to 
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several 
States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of 
everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited 
by the Constitution ; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or oth- 
ers, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of 
slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are cal- 
culated to lead to the most alarming and dangeious conse- 
quences ; and that all such effoits have an inevitable tenden- 
cy to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the 
stability and permanancy of the Union, and ought not to be 
countenanced by any friend of our political institutions. 

2. That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended 
to embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress, 



87 

and therefore, the Democratic party of the Union, standing on 
this national platform, will abide by and adhere to a faithful 
execution of the acts known as the Compromise measures, set- 
tled by the Congress of 1S50, "the act for reclaiming fugitives 
from service or labor," included ; which act being designed to 
carry out an express provi-ion ot the Constitution, cannoi, with 
fidelity thereto, be repealed, or so changed as to destroy or im- 
pair its efficiency. 

3. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at re- 
newing, in Congiess or out of it, the agitation of the slavery 
question under whatever shape or color the attempt may be 
made. 

4. That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and 
uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia 
resolutions of 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the 
Virginia Legislature, in 1899; that it adopts those principles 
as constituting one of the main foundations of its political creed, 
and is resolved to carry them out in their obvious meaning and 
import. 

And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a 
sectional p;irty, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation, now 
relies to test the fidelity of the people, North and South, to the 
Constitution and the Union — 

1. Reso/vcd, That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the 
co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union 
under the Constitution as the paramount issue — and repudia- 
ting all sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic 
slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason 
and armed resistance to law in the Territories, and whose 
avowed purpose, if consummated, must end in civil war and dis- 
union — the American Democracy recognize and adopt the 
principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Ter- 
ritories ot Kansas and Nebraska as embodying the only sound 
and safe solution of the " slavery question, " upon which the 
great national idpa of the people of this whole country can re- 
pose in its determined conser\ativism of the Union — Non-in- 
terferance by congress with slavery in the territories, or 
in the District of Columbia. 

2 That this is the basis of the Compromise of 1850, — con- 
firmed by both the Democratic and Whig parties in national 
Conventions — ratified by the people in the election of 1852, — 
and rightly applied to the organization of Territories in 1854. 

3. That by the uniform application of this Democratic prin- 
ciple to the organization ot new States; with or without do- 
mestic slavery, as they may elect — the equal rights of all the 
States will be preserved intact — the original compact of the 



88 



Constitution maintained inviolate — and the perpetuity and ex- 
pansion of this Union insured to its utmost capacity of embrac- 
ing, in peace and harmony, every future American State that 
may be constituted or annexed, with a Republican form of 
Government. 

R( solved, That we recognize the right of the people of all 
the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through 
the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual res- 
idents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies 
it, to forma Constitution, with or without domestic slavery, 
and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality 
with the other States. 

Resolved, finally, That in view of the, condition of popular 
institutions of the Old World (and the dangerous tendencies 
of sectional agitation, combined with the attempt to enforce 
civil and religious disabilities against the rights of acquiring 
and enjoying citizenship, in our own land ) a high and sacred 
duty is devolved with increased responsibility upon the Dem- 
ocratic party of this country, as the party of the Union, to up- 
hold and maintain the rights of every State, and thereby the 
Union o! the States; and to sustain and advance among us con- 
stitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all monopolies and 
exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expenss 
of the many, and by a vigilent and constant a Iherance to those 
principles and compromises of the Constitution, which are 
broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the 
Union as it was, the Union as it is, and the Union as it shall 
be, in the lull expression of the energies and capacity of this 
great and progressive people. 



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